Michael Anthony Cole

In the winter of 2024, the life of Michael Anthony Cole Jr., a 16-year-old Black male, was cut short in Montgomery, Alabama. The Sidney Lanier High School student was last seen on the evening of January 25. When he did not return home, an act his family described as out of character, they reported him missing.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency issued an Emergency Missing Child Alert as the search for the teenager began. As police deployed drones and investigated leads, three Montgomery City Council members—Marche Johnson, Franetta Delayne Riley, and Oronde Mitchell—offered a joint $5,000 reward for information that would lead to Michael's safe return. The search came to a heartbreaking end on the night of January 29, when his body was discovered in the 6500 block of Selma Highway. Investigators ruled his death a homicide.

Court testimony later pieced together the harrowing narrative of the night Michael disappeared. According to authorities, Michael was with a group of four other young men who went to a home on Gaston Avenue to shoot into it. They reportedly believed the resident had stolen guns from one of them. During the shooting, Michael was accidentally struck in the back of the head by a bullet and died from the gunshot wound. A police detective testified that the others then placed his body in a car. One of the suspects later confessed it was his idea to burn the body before they left Michael's severely burned remains along the Selma Highway.

The Montgomery Police Department soon made arrests in connection with the killing. Nicholas Treyvon King-Sheppard and Nedvin Maynard Jones Jr., both 18, were taken into custody in late January. On March 25, 2024, police and the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested a third suspect, 18-year-old Jerel Brown. All three were charged with felony murder and held in the Montgomery County Detention Facility without bond. Following a preliminary hearing for Nedvin Jones Jr. on February 28, 2024, District Court Judge Tiffany McCord found probable cause to send his case to a grand jury for trial. As of March 2024, the legal proceedings for the accused were ongoing.