Raphael Robert Taylor was 27 and living in Meridian, Mississippi, when he was shot and killed in late summer 2014. In the early hours of August 30, 2014, a 911 caller reported a man struck by a car on Earl Haney Road. Deputies arriving about 12:30 a.m. found Taylor lying in the middle of the road with two gunshot wounds. Witnesses said they heard gunfire around 10 p.m. the night before and saw a large, dark-colored SUV, possibly maroon with blacked-out rims, leave the area shortly afterward. Taylor was taken first to a Meridian hospital, then to University Medical Center in Jackson, where he died on August 31, 2014.
The shooting was treated as a homicide. Investigators named several persons of interest and, within weeks, arrested suspects. Lorenzo Dominque Norman, 23, of Meridian, was charged with murder with bond set at $200,000. Laquanda Shonta Pierce was also charged with murder with bond set at $200,000. A third person, 27-year-old Willie Earl Taylor of Meridian, was charged with accessory after the fact and contempt of court with bond set at $40,000. The motive was not immediately clear, though investigators suggested it might be linked to other criminal activity.
Did anyone in Meridian see that dark-colored SUV on the night of August 30, 2014, or have information about activity on Earl Haney Road that evening?