Steven Cotton

Steven Cotton, 31, was a Black man whose life ended violently in Detroit, Michigan, on March 6, 2012. The only publicly accessible documentation that clearly matches his name and age places the killing at an address on Littlefield—listed as 16209 Littlefield—during a year when the city was grappling with a heavy toll of homicides.

What’s available online does not preserve the fuller scene—no public account of what led up to the attack, whether anyone nearby heard an argument or f ...