LeMonte De’Juan Shields was 19 when he was fatally shot in the City Heights housing complex on Alden Court in Covington, Kentucky, in the early morning hours of July 10, 2019. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting followed another incident about an hour earlier in which an 18-year-old was found with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg on White Court. Covington police linked the two shootings and identified a suspect in Shields’ homicide.

A 37-year-old from Cincinnati, Kermanuel Rice, was arrested and charged with murder. Over the years the case moved through the courts, but the murder charge was dropped in October 2023 after two witnesses died in separate, unrelated shootings and other potential witnesses would not cooperate, leaving prosecutors unable to meet their burden of proof. The family was left without the criminal conviction they had pursued.

Did anyone in the Covington or Cincinnati area know LeMonte Shields or witness either shooting who can provide information?