On January 30, 2020, 48-year-old Dorian Patterson was shot and killed during a gathering at a River Rouge, Michigan residence. Patterson had been drinking with his brother Gerald and an acquaintance, Kenyel Brown; after Gerald left for work two other people arrived, 52-year-old Kimberly Green and 44-year-old Clifton Smith. An argument later broke out between Brown, Green and Smith, and Brown opened fire. Patterson and Green were fatally wounded; Smith was shot but escaped and went for help, later providing an eyewitness account that implicated Brown in the shootings.

Investigators identified Kenyel Brown as the prime suspect in the double homicide and in several other violent crimes across Wayne County. A manhunt ended on February 24, 2020, when employees at an Oak Park adult bookstore identified Brown and police located him in a backyard. Officers moved to arrest him, and Brown inflicted a critical, self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head; he was taken to hospital and died on February 28, 2020, before he could be tried. Was anyone at the gathering or in River Rouge that night aware of tensions between those involved?