Joseph Collier Tillman was 21 and a senior marketing student at Mississippi State University when he was fatally shot in the Cotton District on November 6, 2016. The shooting took place about 1:50 a.m. on Maxwell Street near StaggerIn Sports Grill; Tillman was found in the yard of some apartments and an ambulance arrived by about 2:30 a.m. Authorities described the incident as an attempted robbery — Tillman had interacted with a group of men for several minutes before he was robbed of his wallet and then shot.

A traffic stop later that day produced arrests and weapons seized from a vehicle. Four men from the Columbus and Lowndes County area were arrested that day: 20-year-old Jaylen M. Barker, 22-year-old Jamario Pippins, 16-year-old Tyler Harris, and 19-year-old Brandon Sherrod. A fifth suspect, 18-year-old Syboris A. Pippins, was arrested a few days later. Barker was initially charged with murder while others were charged as accessories; charges against Barker and Syboris Pippins were later escalated to capital murder.

In April 2019 Barker pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Does anyone have information about Tillman’s time in the Cotton District that night or who saw him in the early hours of November 6, 2016?