Francisco Javier Antonio Francisco, 26, was shot to death in the early hours of Saturday, September 23, 2023, along Stall Road in North Charleston. Officers responding to reports of a shooting found him lying in the grass in the 7200 block with a single gunshot wound and no pulse; emergency crews pronounced him dead at the scene. The Charleston County Coroner confirmed the cause and identified him by name.

Investigators treated the location—an apartment-lined stretch of road—as a homicide scene, collecting shell casings, canvassing nearby apartments, and searching for how Francisco came to be alone and mortally wounded before dawn. In October 2023 police arrested two teenagers in connection with the case: a 17-year-old, Lamont Isiah Hawkins, arrested October 6 and charged with murder, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime, and four counts of armed robbery; and a 16-year-old taken into custody October 12 after fleeing and discarding a firearm, charged with similar counts plus unlawful carry of a pistol.

Court records show the case against Hawkins in Charleston County General Sessions Court remained pending. Few details have been released about what led to the shooting beyond investigators linking it to armed robberies and the arrests. Did anyone in the Stall Road area that morning see or hear anything that could help Francisco’s family and investigators?