On the night of March 13, 2021, a shootout inside the St. Thomas Square Apartments (also known as the Wedgewood Apartments) near 61st and Peoria in Tulsa ended the life of 30-year-old Eric Graves, a Black man. Officers found another man with a non-fatal gunshot wound to the arm and then discovered Graves inside an apartment, shot multiple times; investigators recovered nearly 30 shell casings at the scene.

Detectives concluded the attack was not random but a planned ambush tied to a prior disagreement described by one police official as mostly about a girl. The inquiry led to two brothers, 19-year-old Jayden Hopson and 20-year-old Gabriel Hopson, who were arrested within weeks. A relative of the victim, 24-year-old Lorraine Latoya Graves, was later sought as an accessory and was located after commenting on a police Facebook post. A fourth person, 20-year-old Wendell Alexander, initially sought as a material witness, was arrested elsewhere and then alleged to have been much more involved.

By the end of July 2021 all four were in custody: Alexander and Jayden Hopson charged with first-degree murder, Gabriel Hopson and Lorraine Graves charged as accessories to murder, with charges pending and the investigation ongoing.