On a spring day in New Orleans, what began as a routine task of moving furniture ended in the tragic death of 38-year-old Kevin Dunkley. It was April 18, 2018, at a CubeSmart self-storage facility in the Algiers neighborhood, where Dunkley and three other men were unloading items from a U-Haul truck. The mundane scene took a dark turn when gunshots echoed through the loading area. When police arrived, they found Dunkley lying on the ground, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
Despite the efforts of first responders, he succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
The investigation into Dunkley's death quickly focused on the men who were with him that day. Security footage from the storage facility captured crucial moments leading up to the shooting. The video showed Dunkley and the others unloading the truck. At one point, Dunkley and another man walked behind the U-Haul, momentarily disappearing from the camera's view. Shortly after, the same man reappeared, tucking an object into his waistband before getting into a pickup truck and driving away. The other two men left in the U-Haul, leaving Dunkley behind.
As the New Orleans Police Department pieced together the evidence, they identified 37-year-old David Collins as a suspect. Collins had a history of violence, including a prior conviction for aggravated assault. In a strange turn of events, after police released a photo of one of the men seen in the surveillance video to the public, Collins himself contacted detectives and identified himself as the man in the picture.
Collins was subsequently arrested and booked into the Orleans Justice Center on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with Kevin Dunkley's death. His bond was initially set at $350,000 and was later increased to $400,000 after he was indicted by a grand jury in November 2018. The case against him proceeded through the legal system, with Assistant District Attorney Abigail MacDonald presenting the case for the prosecution.
