Noah Juwan Waters was 19 when he was shot and killed on December 4, 2019, in Spotsylvania County, just outside Fredericksburg, Virginia. A James Monroe High School graduate who planned to attend Germanna Community College, Waters was involved in an encounter described by authorities as a drug deal that turned violent.

According to the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, Waters and a 22-year-old associate, Jevante Lemroy Ellis, arranged to buy narcotics from 22-year-old Foster Leon Brooks near Summerfield Court. Watkins, reportedly wearing a ski mask, and Ellis allegedly attempted to rob Brooks at gunpoint. Brooks drew a weapon and fired multiple shots; one struck Waters, who later died at a hospital. The shooting prompted a temporary lockdown of five nearby schools.

Ellis was arrested and charged with robbery; Brooks was arrested initially on counts of shooting from a vehicle so as to endanger persons. In May 2020 a grand jury indicted Brooks on manslaughter and second-degree felony murder for Waters’s death. Did anyone in the Fredericksburg area know Noah or have information about the events that day?