Freland Lee Pridgen, a 16-year-old Black male from Detroit, was shot on the city’s west side on Friday afternoon, November 25, 2016, during a family Thanksgiving visit and later died; his obituary lists his death as November 26, 2016. Accounts trace the violence to a flare-up over Thanksgiving food at a home on Ward, where a verbal argument escalated quickly. His mother said he called just before the shooting to warn that his uncle had pulled a gun. Family and investigators say the uncle retrieved a shotgun from another room, the weapon discharged and struck Freland, and he was rushed to Sinai-Grace Hospital where he was stabilized for a time before dying.

Police searched for the uncle, James Lee Graham, who fled after the shooting and was taken into custody near Joy Road and Northfield Street after a traffic stop. Prosecutors filed an open-murder case and weapons charges; Graham was arraigned and held in jail while the case proceeded. The case concluded with a guilty plea and a prison sentence reported as a minimum term of 18 years, with records listing a conviction for second-degree murder plus a felony-firearm sentence and a sentencing date in July 2017.

Did anyone in the neighborhood or family have information about the argument that escalated that afternoon?