On the evening of April 9, 2020, a shooting incident in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, resulted in the death of 30-year-old Stephen R. Lopez, Jr. of Woodbury. Murfreesboro Police Department officers were dispatched to a residence in the 1100 block of North Rutherford Boulevard around 8:30 p.m. following reports of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they discovered Lopez deceased at the scene.
The investigation into the shooting quickly led to a suspect, James E.
Evans, III, who was 27 years old at the time of the incident. Evans, a resident of Murfreesboro, was identified as an acquaintance of Lopez. He was detained at the scene and was subsequently taken for an evaluation.
Following the initial investigation, James E. Evans, III, was arrested on April 12, 2020, and served with a warrant for second-degree murder in connection with the fatal shooting of Lopez. He was then booked into the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center. Subsequent reports indicated that Evans remained in custody with his case proceeding through the court system, with a trial scheduled for June 2022. As of February 2023, he was still incarcerated awaiting a court date scheduled for April of that year.
