On the morning of June 3, 2009, in Chesapeake, Virginia, 25-year-old Jamaica Bynum was fatally shot in her home on Creekside Crescent while her two children were in the house preparing for school. Bynum, a Black/African American mother of two, was a nursing student due to graduate in September and worked in the medical section of a local jail.

The perpetrator was identified as Malik Griffin, Bynum’s boyfriend and the children’s father. In the days before the shooting he reportedly showed erratic behavior. On the morning of the killing, as Bynum was getting the children ready, Griffin shot her; their 12-year-old son later testified that he heard his mother say I love you to him and his sister, then a loud noise and a thud.

Griffin was arrested and charged with murder and firearms offenses. At trial jurors heard about his prior drug convictions and marijuana use; in April 2011 a jury found him guilty. He was sentenced to 50 years for murder plus eight years for the firearms counts. Did anyone who knew Jamaica or the family notice changes in Griffin’s behavior before June 3, 2009?