On December 14, 2016, Robert E. Smith Jr., a 39-year-old Black man, was shot and killed at his home on Temple Cove in Columbus, Mississippi. He sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen and was pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital–Golden Triangle. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation led the inquiry into the death.

Robert Smith Jr.’s 20-year-old son, Davius Roshard Smith, who lived at the same address, turned himself in and was arrested and charged with murder. Court documents say an altercation escalated and that Robert allegedly pressed a gun to Davius’s face; Davius then retrieved a gun, fired one shot, and fled. Davius described a history of domestic violence by his father and asserted he acted in self-defense.

A Lowndes County grand jury declined to indict, finding insufficient evidence to proceed, and the district attorney did not plan further action absent new information. Did anyone in the area know the Smith family or witness tensions at the Temple Cove home?