Elijah D. Lacey, 18, was shot and killed on the afternoon of Memorial Day, May 28, 2018, while sitting in his pickup truck in a parking lot near 21st Street and Post Road in Indianapolis. A senior at Lawrence Central High School and a youth wrestling coach, Elijah was a week away from graduation when two young men approached his truck to conduct a marijuana sale. Surveillance footage shows one man at the driver’s side and another entering the passenger side; an argument erupted and gunfire followed.

The man outside the driver’s window, identified as 18-year-old Anthony Steele, fired multiple shots that struck Elijah. Elijah returned fire and wounded the passenger, Anthony Brown, in the leg before dying of his injuries. Investigators used surveillance video and digital evidence, including text messages arranged between Elijah and Steele recovered from Elijah’s phone, to identify and arrest Steele. Prosecutors presented the texts and video at trial; the defense argued self-defense, but the jury convicted Anthony Steele of murder in June 2019.

Elijah’s family had already endured the earlier, unresolved homicide of his father, Jason Lacey, making this loss particularly painful. If anyone remembers seeing the pickup, the suspects, or has information about the transaction that led to this shooting, please come forward.