On the morning of August 2, 2020, 32-year-old Tupo Fuaau was shot in the parking lot of the Roadway Inn on Pacific Highway East in Fife, Washington. Police found Fuaau in the driver’s seat of a Chrysler that had crashed into a motel room; he had multiple gunshot wounds and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. An autopsy showed gunshot wounds to the head and left thigh.

Court records describe an earlier confrontation that morning. Fuaau had been looking for a woman he said had robbed him the week before and had kicked in the doors of at least two motel rooms. In one room occupied by 29-year-old Tamau Tauala, a woman told investigators Fuaau was armed; a struggle over the weapon followed and Tauala took the gun. Surveillance footage later captured Tauala firing at Fuaau’s vehicle as it pulled into the lot. Witnesses said a passenger fled from the car after the shooting.

Tauala left the motel with two women and was arrested more than a week later in Tacoma. He told officers he had given the gun to the person who drove him from the scene. At trial Tauala claimed self-defense; prosecutors said evidence pointed to Fuaau being unarmed when he returned to the motel. What details about the confrontation or the moments before the shooting could still clarify what happened?