On the evening of August 26, 2021, in Canton, Mississippi, Jeison Romero Lopez, a Latino boy only weeks shy of his sixth birthday, was sitting buckled in the back seat of his mother’s car while she pumped gas at a Marathon station near Franklin and Canal streets. Across the block, a confrontation escalated into gunfire aimed at an apparent target. Stray rounds traveled toward the Marathon station and one bullet struck Jeison in the head. He was taken to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson but did not survive. Tracy Wilder, 42, who was working under a vehicle nearby, was also fatally shot; a third person was wounded but survived.

Investigators said multiple armed teenagers were involved and early leads focused on a white Dodge Charger seen leaving the area. By late August, police identified 24-year-old Tomar Rashad Smith as a person of interest and charged him with accessory before and after the fact to murder; a 17-year-old was charged with conspiracy to commit capital murder while other teens were sought. The shootings prompted a city curfew for minors and community calls for answers.

Did anyone in Canton see the Charger or notice suspicious activity around Franklin and Canal that night?