Jaylin Stanford was a 16-year-old Black male killed in the early hours of May 6, 2020, in Albany, Georgia. Shortly after 1 a.m. he was a passenger in a white Honda Accord at Turner Field Road and Meadow Drive when the vehicle was sprayed with gunfire. Officers found Jaylin inside the car deceased from a gunshot wound; three other occupants—Emanuel Hill, 20; Shakeriah Harper, 21; and Lovell Mango, 18—were wounded and taken to a hospital. A fifth occupant, Willie Harris, 18, was not physically harmed.

The Albany Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide and Gang Unit identified multiple suspects and made a series of arrests. Martez Thomas was arrested May 7; warrants were issued for Rentavious Unterrious Lewis, known as Monsta, and others in June; Demitri Lumpkin was taken into custody in July; and Cortez Oats Jr. was apprehended by U.S. Marshals in Miami in September 2020. By December 2020 a Dougherty County grand jury had indicted 12 people, alleging involvement by members of a group described as the Purp Gang and charging several with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and related offenses.

Jaylin’s family remembered him as a hard-working teen who stayed close to his mother and wanted a better life for his family. Does anyone have information about Jaylin, the shooting that night, or the people involved?