On the evening of October 7, 2016, 21-year-old Davonte Marcus Lee was sitting in a vehicle on Reeves Road in Bridgeton, New Jersey when he was shot. He was taken to his sister’s home and then rushed to Inspira Hospital in Vineland, where he was pronounced dead. The Bridgeton Police Department and the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation.

A 17-year-old male, Michael J. Huggins, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service two days after the shooting and charged with homicide. He later escaped custody from the Harborfields Youth Detention Facility in Egg Harbor City with three other teenagers and was captured in Atlantic City more than a day later. At trial Huggins said he acted in self-defense; a jury convicted him of reckless manslaughter and unlawful possession of a weapon, though the weapons charge was later dismissed by a judge. Huggins received a sentence of up to nine years in state prison and must serve at least 85% of that term under New Jersey’s No Early Release Act.

If anyone witnessed the shooting on Reeves Road or has information about Davonte Lee’s final hours, please come forward.