On the evening of July 28, 1975, 18-year-old Obie Wynn was shot in the back of the head in the parking lot of Bolton’s Bar on Livernois Avenue in Detroit. The bar’s owner, Andrew Chinarian, confronted Wynn and two other youths, saying he believed they were tampering with his car, then fired a .25-caliber pistol. Wynn was taken to the hospital and died nine hours later; he was a father to a two-year-old daughter.

Chinarian said he saw something shiny in Wynn’s hand, believed it was a weapon, and intended only a warning shot while attempting a citizen’s arrest. Neighbors described Chinarian as hostile and racist and said he tried to keep Black patrons out of the bar. Chinarian was briefly held for questioning, released, then charged with second-degree murder and freed on $500 bond before a judge later raised it to $25,000. The initial release set off three days of protests and unrest in the neighborhood; rocks were thrown, stores looted, fires set, and another man, Marian Pyszko, was killed during the disturbances. Chinarian was later acquitted of charges related to Wynn’s death.