On February 12, 2021, 16-year-old Stanley Antonio Freeman Jr., a student at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, was shot as he left school. Multiple shots struck the vehicle he was driving, causing him to crash in the 2500 block of Wilson Avenue. First responders found him unresponsive; he was taken to UT Medical Center and died of his injuries. Investigators reported finding no evidence explaining why he would have been targeted.

Police linked the killing to two juveniles after evidence tied them to an earlier January 14 incident in which shots were fired at a vehicle carrying two other teenagers. The two males, ages 14 and 16, were arrested in mid-February and charged with Freeman’s first-degree murder and with attempted murder in a separate shooting. Prosecutors presented cell phone records and surveillance footage placing the defendants at the scene; the motive remained unclear. The family said they wanted to honor Stanley by speaking out against gun violence.

If anyone knew Stanley, saw activity on Wilson Avenue that afternoon, or has information about the shootings, please share what is known.