On the evening of December 9, 2018, gunfire in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood of Saint Paul left 19-year-old Taishawn Smith dead. Officers responding shortly after 9 p.m. found two people with gunshot wounds inside a vehicle near Payne Avenue and Jessamine Avenue East. Both were taken to Regions Hospital; the other victim survived with non-life-threatening injuries while Smith died at the hospital.

Police investigators and the department’s forensic services unit spent hours at the scene canvassing for witnesses and collecting evidence, with a silver Nissan Altima identified as a particular focus. One person was arrested on suspicion of aiding an offender, but as of a few days after the shooting no charges had been filed in connection with Smith’s murder and no motive had been publicly identified. Months earlier, Smith had pleaded guilty to second-degree riot stemming from a March 2018 incident and was on five years of probation at the time of his death.

If anyone witnessed the shooting or has information about the silver Nissan Altima, please come forward.