A quiet Sunday morning in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, ended in violence when 65-year-old Joseph Holt III was found in his vehicle around 7:20 a.m. near Watkins Park Plaza with fatal gunshot wounds. Holt, a retired US Postal Service employee, was headed to church; family members described him as kind and said the attack felt like an act of pure evil. Police have characterized the killing as a random act of violence.

That same day, two other people were shot and injured in separate but related incidents nearby — a man in his vehicle on Darlenen Street and a woman in her car on Cambleton Drive — and a fourth person was shot at but not struck. Prince George’s County police canvassed the area and arrested a person of interest, 26-year-old Damonte Marcel Williams of Upper Marlboro. A rifle described as similar to a smaller version of an AK-47 was recovered and linked to Holt’s murder. Williams has been charged with first- and second-degree murder in Holt’s death and with three counts of attempted first- and second-degree murder in the other shootings and is being held without bond.

Was anyone in the Watkins Park Plaza area that morning or the surrounding neighborhood that evening able to see or hear anything that might help explain why these people were targeted?