Rashid Little

A night out with friends in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, ended in tragedy for Rashid Little, a 28-year-old Black man. In the early hours of Sunday, January 21, 2024, Little was at the CRU Lounge, a hookah bar on Highway 69 South, when an altercation began with security staff. The dispute escalated into a brutal assault, with several uniformed security guards beating the unarmed Little for more than two minutes inside the establishment.

The violence spilled out into the parking lot after Little was dragged outside. There, one of the security guards, identified as 35-year-old Aaron Dewayne Hill, shot Little point-blank in the chest and fled the scene. An autopsy later determined that the single gunshot wound, which struck Little's heart and a lung, was the cause of death.

The Tuscaloosa Police Department and its Violent Crimes Unit launched an immediate investigation. After interviewing witnesses and reviewing security footage from the lounge, authorities identified Hill as the shooter. He was located later that morning and taken into custody. A woman who was with Hill at the time of his arrest, 47-year-old Thyais Walker, was also arrested and charged with illegally possessing a pistol. Hill was charged with murder and was ordered held without bond after a judge deemed him a flight risk and a danger to the community.

In the aftermath of the killing, investigators discovered that neither Hill nor the company that hired him, Grizzly Security, was licensed by the Alabama Security Regulatory Board. After an emotional public hearing where Little’s family demanded accountability, the Tuscaloosa City Council unanimously voted in February 2024 to revoke CRU Lounge's business license, permanently shutting the venue down.

More than two years after the shooting, Aaron Hill stood trial for the murder of Rashid Little. Following a four-day trial where the jury heard testimony and reviewed video evidence of the assault, a Tuscaloosa County jury convicted Hill of murder in March 2026.

In May 2026, Hill was sentenced to 33 years in prison. He was given credit for time served since his arrest.