Aaron D. Shepherd, a 49-year-old White man, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of May 27, 2021, in Topeka, Kansas. Police were called just before 4:45 a.m. to a shooting in the 1100 block of S.W. 17th Street. Officers found Shepherd lying in the roadway next to his vehicle with a gunshot wound; he was taken to Stormont Vail Hospital and pronounced dead.

Video surveillance from the area identified the vehicle from which the fatal shot was fired as a Chevrolet Trailblazer. Investigators traced the SUV and its occupants and identified two men—Brandon T.D. Croskey and Jeremy F. Volle—as responsible for the shooting. Croskey later pleaded guilty to unintentional but reckless second-degree murder and criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle with great bodily harm. Volle was convicted at trial of first-degree felony murder, unintentional but reckless second-degree murder, and criminal possession of a weapon by a felon, and received a life sentence.

If anyone witnessed the shooting or has information about the events that night near S.W. 17th Street, please share what is known.