Carl Batie was a 26-year-old Black Mercer County corrections officer described by family and colleagues as warm, ambitious and stylish. On the night of November 10 into the early morning of November 11, 2012, he attended a rented event at the Baldassari Regency banquet hall on Morris Avenue in Trenton. Around 1:15 a.m., shots were fired from the parking lot toward a second-story rear deck where Batie and other partygoers had gathered; one bullet struck him in the head and he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Investigators collected shell casings, reviewed surveillance footage and canvassed witnesses as they worked to determine whether Batie was deliberately targeted or hit by indiscriminate fire. The probe focused on two Trenton men, Maurice Skillman and Hykeem Tucker, after detectives identified figures on multiple camera angles and a confidential informant linked a street name to Tucker’s identity. Both were later charged with murder and related offenses; initial trial proceedings produced a hung jury, and a retrial led to convictions in 2016.

Did anyone who attended that event or who knew Carl remember seeing suspicious activity in the lot that night?