On the evening of October 26, 2016, 18-year-old Reuel Hicks of Waldorf, Maryland, was shot behind a movie theater on Mall Circle during a prearranged drug transaction. Hicks was with several friends when 19-year-old Deavan Quindel Jefferson of Baltimore arrived to meet him. According to the prosecution at trial, Jefferson pulled a handgun during the encounter and shot Hicks; Jefferson fled on foot and left Hicks critically injured. Hicks was flown to a nearby hospital and later died of his wounds.

Charles County deputies rapidly obtained a suspect description and a patrol officer located and arrested a person matching that description. Jefferson was charged with first-degree murder. At trial the defense argued Jefferson acted in self-defense, claiming Hicks and his friends intended to rob him, but the jury convicted. On July 17, 2017, the judge sentenced Deavan Quindel Jefferson, then 20, to 40 years in prison for the murder and a related firearms charge.

Did anyone who knew Reuel or who was in that area that night come forward with details that helped piece together what happened?