Jarell Lavell King, a 31-year-old Black man from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was shot after a tense encounter on October 21, 2020, when he went to a residence connected to his child's mother. Accounts later described a dispute that flared quickly inside the home, turning from an argument into a physical struggle as emotions over parenting and boundaries boiled over.
Police said King arrived intending to see his young son, and the child was at the house.
Investigators and court summaries described the confrontation as a fight between King and Marcus Jerell Anderson, who was living there at the time. During the struggle, a handgun came into play; the versions of how it surfaced differed in later retellings, but the fight ended with Anderson firing a shot that struck King. King was rushed for medical care and died later at a hospital from his injuries.
For months, the case sat in the uneasy space between a deadly shooting and the legal questions that follow when violence erupts during a fight. In February 2021, Sioux Falls police announced an arrest: Anderson, then 32, was taken into custody and authorities indicated he faced a possible manslaughter charge connected to King's death.
The case moved forward to a Minnehaha County jury trial in October 2022, where Anderson faced counts that included first-degree manslaughter, aggravated assault, and felony possession of a firearm. Prosecutors and defense attorneys centered the trial on what happened in those chaotic moments inside the home—whether the shooting was an unlawful killing or an act Anderson claimed was justified. After deliberations, jurors acquitted Anderson of first-degree manslaughter and aggravated assault, but found him guilty of possessing a firearm as a felon, leaving the death itself legally unresolved in the way many families hope a courtroom will settle it.
