On the evening of February 19, 2020, 15-year-old Eric Ray McDonnell Jr. of Fort Wayne was ambushed in an alley near McKinnie and Euclid Avenues. Emergency responders took him to a local hospital where he died later that night. The Allen County Coroner ruled the death a homicide due to gunshot wounds.

Police determined Blako was an alias for Cameron Blake Hallett. Investigators say Hallett had accused Eric and a friend of theft, had made threatening phone calls weeks earlier, and had blocked Eric on social media before the killing. Hallett was arrested in a traffic stop on February 21, 2020, and charged with murder. Witness testimony and forensic evidence at trial reportedly included Eric’s final identification of his attacker and accounts that Hallett had waited or lured Eric into the alley.