On New Year’s Day 2019, Tommie Griffin, a 39-year-old Black/African American man from Anderson, Indiana, was found inside his vehicle near Ninth and Chestnut streets at approximately 8:30 a.m., having been shot multiple times. Early in the investigation police were unsure whether Griffin was specifically targeted or the victim of a random act, but the case progressed to an arrest later that month.

On January 28, 2019, 34-year-old Willie Alex Owens Jr., also from Anderson, was arrested at the Championship Lanes bowling alley and accused of shooting Griffin at close range. Owens was charged with murder, intimidation, domestic battery, and interference with the reporting of a crime; a Madison County jury later found him guilty in March 2020 and he was sentenced to 90 years in July 2020.

Griffin’s family remembered him as athletic and family-oriented. He graduated from Madison Heights/Anderson High School in 1998, played on the sectional championship basketball team, earned a physical therapy degree, and worked at Indiana Automotive Fasteners. They planned a scholarship in his name to support a local high school athlete.

Did anyone in Anderson have contact with Tommie around New Year’s Day 2019 or information about the area near Ninth and Chestnut that could help clarify what happened?