[INTRO MUSIC] NARRATOR: For
homicide detectives, the clock starts ticking
the moment they are called. It's overkill. The kids were
in the back seat. Two people gone. We got to speak for them. NARRATOR: Their chance
of solving a murder is cut in half-- You do not tell me a lie. NARRATOR: --if they
don't get a lead-- This is not like you're 16. You graduated now. NARRATOR: --within
the first 48 hours. Ain't nothing, nothing
pretty about this situation. You just messed up. [THEME MUSIC] NARRATOR: Birmingham, Alabama. 11:00 PM. [CAR HONKS] A man rushes his girlfriend
into the emergency room. She has been shot in the head. Doctors try to save her,
but she doesn't survive. [CLOCK TICKING] We got a couple of female
being shut inside of a car. She was actually transported
to the hospital in the car that she was shot
in, so the car was supposed to be a crime scene. NARRATOR: Detective Cynthia
Morrow is a five-year homicide veteran. [MUSIC PLAYING] OK. Let's see what we have here. [SHUTTER CLICKS] NARRATOR: According
to responding officers the victim was shot
once in the head. CYNTHIA MORROW: The victim was
shot through the driver side window of the car. NARRATOR: The victim's boyfriend
and three young children have already been
transported to homicide. They were in the car with
her when she was shot. CYNTHIA MORROW: Kids
were in the back seat. NARRATOR: The victim is
23-year-old Rosetia Smith. She was known for her sense
of humor and her devotion to her three boys. An hour in, detectives turned
to the victim's boyfriend and family members at homicide. Me and my
partners, we're going to talk to each one of them
and see if we can identify the shooter tonight. NARRATOR: Morrow's partner,
four-year homicide Detective Mike Allison, will be
the lead on the case. Allison begins with the
victim's seven-year-old son Christopher who is
accompanied by his aunt. Come on, little man. Come over here, little man. OK? OK. Now, in your own words,
you want to tell me what you saw tonight? They were hitting
at your mama? All were? NARRATOR: He says some women
were hitting his mother through the driver side window. What was your
mama saying to them? Was she talking to them? Yeah. She was? Oh, she was. Was they saying some
bad words to her, too? Oh, they did? Do you know how many came over? Was it one, or two,
or more than two? More than two. OK. You saw a gun? Did you hear a gunshot
and a loud noise? No. You didn't hear it? It did? All right. We'll need a minute. We will be back,
right back in here. Man, that's-- Terrible. Wow. The little guy said,
I just saw a gun come in and it shoot my
mama in the head. And he said, the
bullet fell on me. I'm not sure whether the
other adults have told him that his mama was not going
to be with him anymore. It's a sad story right now. NARRATOR: Louisville, Kentucky. 10:03 PM. A call comes in from
an apartment complex on the south side of town. [PHONE RINGING] [SIRENS] Police respond to the scene. They find four men shot
outside an apartment building. Paramedics rushed the
four men to the hospital. Two survive, but the other
two are pronounced dead. [CLOCK TICKING] Before I get this
call I was sitting down eating a meal with my boy and
about to play a game of Madden. And unfortunately we're
going to have to take a rain check on the Madden. NARRATOR: Lead Detective Will
Brown is a 10-year police veteran and father of two. He's going to kick my butt,
but I still wanted to play. WOMAN: Oh, my god. Oh, my god. [INAUDIBLE] Hey, Thompson. What's up? We ended up with actually
two that are shot and killed and two others shot. NARRATOR: The four
victims, all cousins, were shot on the front porch of
their grandmother's apartment building. The two surviving cousins
are in stable condition at the hospital. There's also a fifth guy. He was here with them. He went into shock. Just, I guess, traumatized. NARRATOR: The fifth victim
is being treated for shock at the hospital. WILLIAM BROWN: We're going
to take a look at this. Oh, my god. OK. Your victim's deceased,
J'Onte Johnson. And then Quentin Knighten. NARRATOR: The first deceased
victim is 25-year-old J'Onte Johnson. He lived with his grandmother in
the building where he was shot. The second deceased victim is
26-year-old Quentin Knighten. He and his son lived across
the hall from J'Onte. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Is that a live round here? NARRATOR: In the front yard
they find a shell casing from a medium caliber handgun. Yeah, look. Right here. NARRATOR: On the porch they find
projectiles from a second gun. An assault rifle. KEVIN THOMPSON: Damn. I think I got some jacket
and some round back here, and that's going to
be the short, narrower thing of the SKS. WILLIAM BROWN: I'm thinking
we have two shooters. There's seems to be
more SKS rounds and then the medium caliber shell casing. It's overkill no doubt about it. NARRATOR: Three hours in, the
team gets a potential lead. Apartment on the left here. NARRATOR: Detective Kyle
Willett found a woman who says she knows one of the shooters. WILLIAM BROWN: Need
her to go to the office and get the information out. KYLE WILLETT: Can you give me a
brief description of the events that led up to tonight? WOMAN: I received a
call from my ex-husband. NARRATOR: The woman
says before the shooting her ex-husband spoke to a
man that may be involved. The man had just been in
a fight and was angry. WOMAN: He was very,
very intoxicated. That's a reference to
people he was fighting with? Mm-hmm. NARRATOR: She says her
ex-husband told her the man's name. OK. [MUSIC PLAYING] JON LESHER: We got Tawain Lewis. NARRATOR: Tawain Lewis,
AKA, Chum is 31 years old. He has a history
of trafficking a controlled
substance, tampering with physical evidence,
fleeing and evading police all from around the area where
this shooting took place. Have two victims
that survived. If he's our guy, they'll
be able to pick him out. NARRATOR: In the morning,
detective Chris Middleton and Sergeant Aaron Crowell take
a photo pack containing Chum to one of the surviving
victims, Demarcus. Hey. What's up, man? You Demarcus? DEMARCUS: Yeah. Can I talk to you
for a minute, partner? Where did you get hit at?
Right in the hip? Where at? Boy, you got real lucky. You was sitting there minding
your own business, wasn't you? NARRATOR: He says he and
the four other victims were walking to a liquor store
when they were confronted by a man. NARRATOR: He says,
after the argument, they bought some drinks and went
to their grandmother's porch to hang out. A little while later, the same
man approached with a handgun. NARRATOR: He says then he
noticed another man approach. He was carrying an AK-47. Yeah. NARRATOR: Demarcus says
the two men started firing. He jumped up and ran. CHRIS MIDDLETON: Well, I
got some pictures here I'd like for you to look at. OK? Do you recognize
anybody on this paper? [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Louisville
Detective Will Brown is working a shooting of four
cousins that killed J'Onte Johnson and Quentin Knighten. Their potential suspect is
31-year-old Tawain Lewis, AKA Chum. Now Detective Chris Middleton
is showing a photo pack to one of the surviving victims. [OMINOUS MUSIC] CHRIS MIDDLETON: That's who
shot you all last night? Yeah. NARRATOR: He picks out
Tawain Lewis, AKA Chum, as the shooter with the handgun. NARRATOR: He says he remembers
hearing part of a nickname that Chum was calling
the second shooter. NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
at the hospital, the second surviving
victim also picks out Chum from a photo pack, but he
doesn't know the second shooter either. WILLIAM BROWN: Why do you
think he was tripping? WILLIAM BROWN: I'm going to
make sure they pay for this. He said that the guy has a
problem with powder cocaine. And when I was in narcotics,
one thing you learn is they become very paranoid,
so that might have contributed to the problem. And it's just sad
because just in a blink of an eye with a
very nasty weapon you can take down
a whole family. NARRATOR: With 18 hours gone-- It's that building there. NARRATOR: Brown meets with
detectives Corey Cadwell and Kevin Trees to look for
Chum at his last known address. [KNOCKS] WILLIAM BROWN: Police. NARRATOR: In Birmingham,
detectives Mike Allison and Cynthia Morrow are working
the case of Tia Smith shot in her car while her three
children were in the back seat. Now Detective Mike
Allison just learned that the shooting occurred
during a fight between Tia and a group of women. Allison turns to the
victim's boyfriend hoping he can explain
what went down. NARRATOR: He explains that
they were driving home from a friend's house when Tia
spotted a car in a parking lot with four women inside. You ever seen them before? Was tonight the first time? NARRATOR: He says Tia pulled
over to confront the women, but he doesn't know why. All right. NARRATOR: Tia started
arguing with the women through their car windows,
then the women in the other car got out. Mm-hmm. I'm not sure if we
know anything more. He don't know who they were
or why they were fighting. I guess that's one part
of the puzzle we're still going to have to figure out. NARRATOR: Meanwhile, one
of the victim's friends has come forward. She may have the answers
detectives are looking for. We've got a
witness up here that says she knows these
girl's full names, and she knows about the
beef that's been going on between the two groups. So I'm going to talk to her
and see if she can give me some names. I'm going to pull
up some pictures. All right. Were you present when
all this happened? Tell me what you know
about what's been going on. NARRATOR: She says the group
of women who called had been arguing with her over a man. Tia was over at her house
during the argument. OK. Did they have a
problem with Rosetia? - No.
- No? No. NARRATOR: She says Tia left to
go home before the women came over. She thinks Tia ran into
them while driving out of her neighborhood. NARRATOR: They find
all four women. None of them have
criminal records. It's just crazy. I mean, the victim
didn't have anything to do with the beat
that was going on. Didn't even know the suspect. Doesn't make any sense to me. MIKE ALLISON: We're going
to come back in the morning, and try to get some good
addresses on these girls, and then go pick them up. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: At 3:45 AM the
team calls it a night. Thank you all very much. NARRATOR: Less than four
hours later, Allison gets a call at home. We got a call. Two of the girls that were
in the car have come in. NARRATOR: The two women
say they want to talk. Right now they're not saying
the name of the girl who had the gun. CYNTHIA MORROW:
How are you doing? I'll show you [INAUDIBLE]. You're going to tell
me exactly what happened? Mm-hmm. And you do not tell me a lie. OK? NARRATOR: She says that
she and three other women pulled into a parking
lot on the way to confront the victim's friend. A little while later,
the victim drove up and started yelling at them. OK. NARRATOR: She says the
car started pulling away. That's when she heard a gunshot. When did you
first see the gun? All right. Now, this is where
I'm going to stop. Mm-hmm. This is where you
got to be careful. A child with is mother's brain
splattered on his leg sitting Mm-hmm. in the back seat told
me about the gun. He watched his mother get
her head blown off tonight. OK? So I'm going to ask you again. When did you first see the gun? [OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: In the Birmingham
shooting of Tia Smith, Detective Mike Allison is
questioning one of the four alleged female suspects to find
out who pulled the trigger. I'm going to ask you again. When did you first see the gun? All right. Who are we talking
about that said, "I think I done shot somebody." LaQuintta? NARRATOR: She says her friend
LaQuintta Turk was the shooter. And you're fighting over what? A boy, basically? You never thought
that maybe we just need to just let this go? NARRATOR: In the next
room the other witness confirms LaQuintta Turk
as the alleged shooter. CYNTHIA MORROW: I
mean, it's just crazy. It makes no sense. And of course, if you're going
to fight you need to make sure everybody's on the
same page and no one brings a gun to a fistfight
because stuff like this can happen. And that's her. NARRATOR: 22-year-old LaQuintta
Turk has never been arrested. MIKE ALLISON: I don't believe
she's a cold blooded killer, but the fact remains that we
got a young lady who's dead tonight. And this girl's probably
responsible for it. NARRATOR: The team heads out
to LaQuintta's workplace. [MUSIC PLAYING] In the Louisville double
homicide of cousins J'onte Johnson and Quentin Knighten,
Detective Will Brown is looking for suspect,
Tawain Lewis, AKA Chum, at his apartment. WILLIAM BROWN: Police. [KNOCKS] We're going to keep on looking
for him until we find him. Right now we got to
identify the second shooter, and I have a fifth
victim in the case. He wasn't shot,
but he was shot at. And he may be my only chance of
identifying the second shooter. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: The next day
with less than seven hours left in the first
48 the fifth victim agrees to meet with Brown. WILLIAM BROWN: What's up, bro? I'm Detective Brown. NARRATOR: Brown hopes the
man can help him track down the second shooter, but he
refuses to even identify Chum. Just relax, man. No, I'm not going
to get you-- man, we got two guys that got
shot up that was like, man. Thank you. Two people gone. They can't speak for themselves. We got to speak for them. Man, you're giving
them too much power. What makes them strong
is I walked up on them. They seen my face. Me and my boy just sprayed them. I'm invincible. If you want to
sit there and say, I don't know none of the guys
who shot him, that's something. You got to live
with that because J, and Q, you, Tawain,
Demarcus didn't deserve it. NARRATOR: The victim
claims he never got a look at the second
shooter with the AK-47. WILLIAM BROWN: Do you think-- You almost died out there, and
you don't want to put somebody away. That's what you have to
deal with as a police officer. We're still at square one trying
to look for our second shooter. NARRATOR: As the clock
runs out both suspects are still at large. Chum, I don't think he's
going to leave the city. Once we get a hold
of that suspect we'll be able to figure
out who was his accomplice in this horrible act. We'll catch these guys. NARRATOR: In the first 48,
Louisville Detective Will Brown responded to a multiple shooting
that killed J'onte Johnson and Quentin Knighten-- identified one suspect
31-year-old, Tawain Lewis, AKA Chum, but could not identify his
accomplice, searched for Chum, but he was nowhere to be found. [MUSIC PLAYING] Patrol units continue
the search for Chum. Four days later, the
pressure pays off. Chum turns himself in. He's came with his
attorney, and at this time he does not want to
give a statement. So we're going to provide
some of his rights and transport him
over to corrections. WILLIAM BROWN: I'm a little
disappointed about Chum. We're not going to get
some of the answers to the questions in the case. The key to the
case is us talking to people close to Chum. Try to get some insight maybe
who else might have committed this crime. That's the only thing
I'm worried about. This other guy that's on the
streets with that weapon. An assault rifle. I want to get him
off the streets. NARRATOR: In the
Louisville shooting deaths of J'onte Johnson
and Quentin Knighten, Detective Will Brown is charged
one suspect, Tawain Lewis, AKA Chum. Now Brown is on the hunt
for a second suspect. Brown spends three months
searching for leads on the second shooter. Then he gets a potential break
from Chum's visiting records in jail. There's an individual on
the visiting log that has been to see him at least six times. We're going to go
talk to this person and see if they can add
anything to the case. NARRATOR: Brown is hoping Chum's
friend will be willing to talk. NARRATOR A few hours later-- WILLIAM BROWN: Seandre Horsley. NARRATOR: --Brown finds
Mookie in the database. Seandre Horsley just turned 18. WILLIAM BROWN: His
criminal history, it's not that significant. We don't have access
to juvenile records. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Brown takes a
photo pack containing Horsley to Demarcus-- the surviving victim
who was shot in the leg. NARRATOR: Demarcus IDs
Horsley as the second shooter with the AK-47. WILLIAM BROWN: Now we
can go pick him up. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: The next day, patrol
picks up Horsley and brings him to headquarters. I really would
like him to talk. Want him to give me some type
of association with Chum. It's going to be tough. I'm Detective Brown. I'm working the
Saddlebrook case. Do you remember that case? [KNOCK] Ding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. NARRATOR: Horsley admits to
knowing Tawain Lewis, AKA Chum. WILLIAM BROWN: What do you
know about the case, Mookie? Is Mookie not your name? OK. So nobody calls you Mookie? Why would Chum
call you Mookie? Think back to
when that happened. Somebody told me that you was
with Chum shortly before all this went down. You know what--
you know what it is. NARRATOR: Horsley claims
he doesn't hang out in the neighborhood where
the shooting took place. That dog-- you hear
what you just said? Can I repeat it? Yeah. Go ahead. Man, now I remember. Now I know I definitely
ain't got nothing to do with it because
I was over here. You either know you did
it, or you know it didn't. [OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: In the Birmingham
murder of 23-year-old Tia Smith, Detective Mike Allison is
pursuing a suspect, 22-year-old Laquintta Turk. Now the team has arrived
at Laquintta's work to take her into custody. [MUSIC PLAYING] Ready, John? You ended up with
three other girls. Start at that point
when you met up. NARRATOR: She confirms
that they were on their way to talk to the victim's
friend when they pulled over. NARRATOR: Laquintta says she
and her friends jumped out of their car. NARRATOR: She says
two of her friends started fighting with the
victim through her car window. OK. NARRATOR: She claims that the
victim's boyfriend reached under his seat for something. What did you guys do? [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: In the Birmingham
shooting of a young mother, Tia Smith, Detective Mike Allison is
talking to the alleged shooter, 22-year-old Laquintta Turk. And I pulled the gun. What did you guys do? OK. Tell me what was going
through your mind when you pointed
that gun towards her? Based on the way this
situation happened, that's a capital murder offense. Now I've got your statements
and all the other witnesses-- even the child that
was in the back seat. OK? But I'll tell you,
there's a-- there's a mother of three children dead
tonight, and it's messed up. There ain't nothing, nothing
pretty about this situation. All right. Her justification was that
the boyfriend was reaching up under the seat, so she
just pointed and fired. So I think it was just a
bad decision on her part, and it's got her in a
rough spot right now. At least right now she's going
to be charged with murder. NARRATOR: 16 hours in, Detective
Allison closes his case. In the first 48, detectives
Mike Allison and Cynthia Morrow responded to the murder
of Tia Smith, found out that four women were suspected
to be involved in the shooting, learned Laquintta Turk
was the alleged shooter, and arrested Laquintta,
who admitted to pulling the trigger. [MUSIC PLAYING] The best thing that I feel
that I can do for my sisters and my daddy is to
take care of these boys so they can have a better life
than she did because that's what she wanted. Takes a lot of love,
and I think you got that. Mm-hmm. We're going to always
have her memories. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: In The
Louisville shooting that killed J'onte Johnson
and Quentin Knighten, Detective Will Brown is
interrogating Seandre Horsley, AKA Mookie, the
alleged second shooter. This is not like
you're 16 or 17. You've graduated now. Two men are gone. Two other men are
jacked up for life, and I'm dealing with this. I'm dealing with this every day. There's enough to arrest him. He's going to jail for murder. Stand up against
that wall right there. WILLIAM BROWN: Arguments happen. But to see this
range of violence, I don't see it too often. I think he was put
into this by Chum. And he looks up to
Chum in some ways. And when Chum came
to him for help, he wanted to show
that he was up for it. That he's one of the boys. You've got five guys that
know each other just having a good time, sitting
laughing on the porch, and two people out of nowhere
come up and shoot them. In a blink of an eye,
two of those people are not with us anymore. There is going to be justice. [MUSIC PLAYING]
