On August 5, 2017, 19-year-old Sean Thomas Howard was shot while seated in a car in the parking lot of Mist Lake Plaza at Richmond Road and South Locust Hill Drive in Lexington, Kentucky. He was taken in a private vehicle to Saint Joseph East Hospital and pronounced dead at 12:56 a.m. Authorities say the shooting grew out of a prior dispute rather than random violence; Howard had been in the car with three others and those occupants were later described in court as involved in a marijuana transaction.

Police arrested a 17-year-old male in connection with the shooting; he was later identified as Antonio Canada. Prosecutors alleged Canada approached the vehicle to confront Austin McPherson over a $50 phone sale and that, while allegedly trying to shoot McPherson, Canada struck Howard. A witness in the car identified Canada as the shooter.

At trial in October 2021 a Fayette County jury acquitted Canada of murder, robbery and any lesser homicide charges. Howard was a Tates Creek High School graduate who had planned to start college.