On the evening of March 5, 2018, Steven E. Stallworth, a 30-year-old Black man from Brick, New Jersey, was found unresponsive with a fatal gunshot wound outside the Hampton Gardens Apartments on James Street in Toms River. Emergency personnel pronounced Stallworth dead at the scene around 9:20 p.m. An autopsy by the Ocean County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by a single gunshot wound.

Investigators say the killing was planned to cancel a drug debt. Prosecutors identified two men in connection with the plot: Anthony Barksdale Jr., 26, of New York, and Sevon Hill. Authorities say Hill owed Stallworth between $10,000 and $40,000 for drugs, that Barksdale lured Stallworth to the apartment complex and shot him, and that a large quantity of cocaine and heroin was later found in a motel room the two shared. Both men were indicted in August 2018.

Stallworth was born September 6, 1987, in Freehold and raised in Lakewood, where he graduated from Lakewood High School. Known as S or Dot, he was remembered for a lively, comical personality and plans to train as a heavy equipment operator. He is survived by two daughters, Aeriel and Arianna Stallworth.