On August 8, 2019, Akhi Ar-Rad Abdul Haqq Murad, a 55-year-old Black man, was shot and killed inside Dunn’s River Jamaican-Caribbean Restaurant and Grocery in Newport News, Virginia, where he worked. The restaurant’s 62-year-old owner, Barrington Anthony Brown, was also killed in the same incident.

Witnesses described a tense argument before a man identified as 37-year-old Darrel Cheney became irate and, according to accounts, pulled a firearm and shot the two men. A nurse who was in the restaurant with a patient said the gunman approached her during the chaos, told her God is with you, and then left. Cheney was located and taken into custody minutes after the shootings; investigators say he confessed to the killings, though no motive was reported.

The killings devastated the community and the victims’ families. If anyone who knew Akhi Ar-Rad Abdul Haqq Murad or was at the restaurant that day has information that could help clarify what happened, please share it.