On March 23, 2019, Nahshon Brown, 31, of Newark, was fatally shot outside the Akbar Restaurant in Edison during a reggae event after a dispute that spilled out of the venue. The shooting occurred at about 1:56 a.m. A 40-year-old man from Newark was also shot and critically wounded but survived.

Authorities identified 26-year-old Andrew Harriot, known as Drew Cash, of the Somerset section of Franklin Township as the gunman and charged him with murder and attempted murder. Harriot initially arranged to surrender through an attorney but did not appear, was briefly a fugitive, then turned himself in at the Middlesex County Courthouse on April 3, 2019, and was held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center.

At trial Harriot said he acted in self-defense; in November 2021 a jury convicted him of passion provocation manslaughter in Brown’s death, passion provocation attempted manslaughter for the wounding, and unlawful possession of a handgun, with sentencing set for January 2022. In June 2023 an appellate court reversed those convictions and returned the case to the lower court, finding the jury had been given flawed instructions that affected consideration of his defense.

Did anyone at the event or nearby see what happened outside the restaurant that night?