On the night of June 14, 2017, at about 9:30 p.m., James Edward Parks, 32, was shot and killed at the intersection of Nixon Avenue and Grover Street in Rome, Georgia. Reports say a red Dodge Durango pulled up alongside Parks and another person; witnesses described an exchange of words and then seven or eight shots fired, at least one striking Parks in the head.

Investigators recovered blood, DNA samples, bullets, shell casings and a firearm from the scene and sent them to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab. Parks’s body was sent for autopsy to determine the precise cause of death. By early 2018 no arrests had been announced and the identity of the occupants of the red Durango and the motive for the shooting remained unknown.

Anyone who was in the Nixon Avenue and Grover Street area that night or who has information about the red Dodge Durango is asked to come forward.