Aahric Whitehead was a 20-year-old Black man from Merrillville, remembered by family as charismatic and kind. A former Merrillville High School quarterback, he had worked at Home Depot and a roofing company and had recently been accepted into a Carpenters’ Union apprenticeship while enrolling at Ivy Tech Community College. His mother, Yvette, said he loved cooking and dreamed of building a house for her.

On the evening of June 1, 2022, emergency responders found Whitehead in a vehicle in a parking lot in the 7200 block of Taft Street suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his head and face; he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators say the shooting arose from a planned handgun sale that turned violent. Whitehead had arrived in a Ford Fusion with two passengers to sell a gun for his uncle and met 18-year-old Daniel Oloyede in a Toyota. A witness reported a 16-year-old, Thurman D. Atkinson Jr., in the backseat. Accounts describe a struggle after Whitehead re-entered the Toyota and a gunfire exchange that wounded Oloyede and Atkinson.

Police later located Atkinson and Oloyede at Oloyede’s home; charges were announced against both. What details do readers from Merrillville or anyone who knew Aahric remember about that night or his life?