In the early morning hours of August 17, 2017, gunfire was reported near 1669 Acushnet Avenue at the Whiskey Lounge in New Bedford. Police responding to a ShotSpotter alert found 33-year-old Marcus A. Roberts, a Black/African American man, lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, then transferred to Rhode Island Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

Witnesses said a white vehicle was seen fleeing the scene immediately after the shooting. New Bedford Police and Massachusetts State Police detectives opened an investigation, but no arrests were made directly in Roberts’s killing and the case remains officially unsolved. Investigators later identified Carmelo Kercado, Jr. as a person of interest during a separate October 2017 double homicide probe; Kercado was not formally charged in Roberts’s death.

If anyone has information about Marcus Roberts, the shooting that night, or the white vehicle reported leaving the scene, please come forward.