On the night of May 29, 2020, 22-year-old Javar Harrell was shot inside a silver Dodge Caliber near Congress and Randolph Streets in downtown Detroit. The shooting happened around 11:25 p.m. while Harrell and two others were in the car and a verbal altercation with someone outside the vehicle escalated. Officers in the area heard gunfire, found Harrell wounded, and he later died at a nearby hospital.

Investigators say the shooting occurred in the vicinity of demonstrations over George Floyd’s death but was determined to be unrelated to those protests. The Detroit Police Department identified two suspects: 22-year-old Omani Bryant, arrested June 8, 2020 during a traffic stop, and 19-year-old Tyjon Casaya-Scott Hites, arrested by U.S. Marshals in Monroe, Louisiana with the arrest announced June 19, 2020. The Wayne County Prosecutor charged Hites with first-degree premeditated murder and felony firearm; Bryant was charged with accessory after the fact and felony firearm, and had bond set at $10,000.

If anyone was in that area on the night of May 29 or has information about what led to the confrontation, please come forward.