Michael Paul McLendon, a 38-year-old White man from Brooklyn in Forrest County, Mississippi, was fatally shot on September 7, 2018, in Hattiesburg. The shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m. on a grassy hill and parking-area vicinity in the 4700 block of Hardy Street, between Newk’s Eatery and Red Lobster.

Investigators focused on Justin Lee Anderson, who knew McLendon and was described during court proceedings as a family friend. Testimony at trial said both men had been together earlier and that Anderson and McLendon had been handling a handgun and pointing it at one another in nearby woods before joining Anderson’s parents on the hill. Witnesses at Newk’s recalled raised voices, a noise they first thought was a firecracker, people running, and officers finding McLendon with a head wound and Anderson on a sidewalk crying. A .22-caliber handgun was recovered; bullets from McLendon’s head were consistent with that weapon. Anderson was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, and a jury later convicted him of first-degree murder, returning a guilty verdict on May 11, 2022, with a life sentence affirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court on May 18, 2023. Anderson is the only person identified in court and news records as criminally responsible for McLendon’s death.