On the evening of May 1, 2021, a neighborhood cookout on Beth Lane in Dinwiddie, Virginia, ended in gunfire. An argument at the gathering escalated into a double shooting that left 23-year-old Waekuon Quendrick Johnson fatally wounded and another person injured. Deputies found Johnson in a ditch with a gunshot wound; an autopsy found a single bullet entered his back and exited through his abdomen.

Investigators recovered several cartridge casings from the roadway. Eyewitness testimony at trial described Johnson walking away after an exchange of words when he was shot in the back and fell as the shooter fled the scene. Anthony Lamont Brown was arrested in connection with the shooting; Brown denied shooting and said he had left the party before dark. Brown was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony for Johnson’s death.

Did anyone in Dinwiddie know Johnson or witness the events at the cookout that night?