Jose “Chepa” Rodriguez, a 25-year-old Hispanic man, was shot and killed in the early morning hours of March 23, 2014, outside the Zam Zam hookah lounge on Crooks Avenue in Paterson, New Jersey. He had been released from prison about five months earlier after serving time on a weapons charge. Rodriguez suffered multiple close-range gunshot wounds to the head, neck, torso, legs, and arms in what was described as an execution-style slaying.

Investigators identified three men — Angel Toro, Luis Polanco, and David Lawrence — and a woman, Jennifer Suriel, as alleged participants who went to the lounge with the intent to kill Rodriguez. Toro was apprehended in Milford, Pennsylvania, in June 2016, and Suriel and Lawrence were arrested in August 2016; all three men were charged with murder and weapons possession. The prosecution’s case relied largely on circumstantial evidence; no fingerprints or DNA tying the defendants to the crime were presented and witnesses gave inconsistent accounts. After six hours of deliberation over two days, the jury returned not guilty verdicts for Toro, Polanco, and Lawrence, a result that left Rodriguez’s family distraught.

Does anyone have information about Rodriguez’s last known movements or who was at the Zam Zam on that night?