In the early hours of August 17, 2020, 33-year-old Matthew Perkins was fatally shot in a residential area of South Saint Paul, Minnesota, after a heated argument. Police found Perkins lying on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds; he was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul and pronounced dead. An autopsy confirmed he had been shot five times and died of blood loss. His 36-year-old cousin was seriously injured in the same incident.

Perkins’ family remembered him as a protector and the glue that held the family together. He was a devoted father, uncle, son, and brother who was working to establish his own business and had been attempting to protect a friend and confront his past when he was killed. Authorities identified 35-year-old Jerome Deshawn Misters of Newport as the shooter; he was arrested hours later at a hotel he was known to frequent and charged with murder and attempted murder. In June 2021 a Dakota County jury convicted Misters of second-degree intentional murder and attempted second-degree intentional murder and he was sentenced to more than 55 years in prison and ordered to pay $7,500 in restitution.

Did anyone in South Saint Paul know Matthew or have information about the events that night?