Leon Lyle, 34, a self-employed tattoo artist and underground rap artist known as Torch, was shot dead on the evening of July 19, 2018, in Petersburg, Virginia. He was in a gold Honda in the 900 block of Augusta Avenue with his 33-year-old cousin Bernard Spratley and three teenagers: 15-year-old Tyron Clanton, Talik Warren, and Austin Evans. Lyle, a father of four, was shot in the back of the head after one of the teenagers stepped out of the vehicle, leaned back in and opened fire; Spratley was shot in the neck. Both men died of their wounds.

Police identified Clanton as the shooter and say he was a member of a local hybrid street gang affiliated with the Crips. Investigators reported that a friend asked Clanton why he had done it and Clanton said he had been ordered to carry out the shooting by a higher-ranking gang member. Cell phone evidence reportedly included a photo of Clanton with the murder weapon taken hours before the killings. Clanton was arrested and charged in the double homicide; legal proceedings and appeals followed.

Does anyone have information about Leon’s life in Petersburg, the people he was with that night, or the events on Augusta Avenue that evening?