On the evening of December 12, 2023, what should have been an ordinary stop at a corner store in Lexington, Kentucky, ended in sudden violence for 33-year-old Robert Douglas Marshall, a Black man who had come to the Dairy Mart on Winburn Drive as so many neighborhood residents did on cold December nights. The small convenience store at 1116 Winburn Drive sat tucked into a busy residential area, the kind of place where people stopped in for snacks, lottery tickets, or a quick drink on their way
home. That Tuesday, though, the familiar glow of the storefront lights would become the backdrop to a homicide scene that drew flashing police cruisers and crime-scene tape instead of routine customers.
Shortly after 7:25 to 7:30 p.m., police dispatchers began receiving reports of a shooting at the store. Officers rushed to the Winburn Mini Mart and found Marshall inside, suffering from a gunshot wound. First responders worked quickly, and he was rushed to the University of Kentucky hospital, but the injury was too severe. Within the hour, he was pronounced dead, the Fayette County Coroner later recording his official time of death as 7:59 p.m. from a single gunshot wound.
In the hours that followed, the store’s parking lot filled with patrol cars, their lights splashing blue and red against the windows while detectives moved quietly in and out of the building. Local news crews described the scene from just beyond the tape, noting how suddenly the quiet of the early evening had been broken. Police said that when they arrived, a suspect was still at the scene and was immediately taken into custody; officials later reiterated that a suspect had been arrested there, and that all parties involved in the incident had been identified. Even so, investigators offered no public explanation of what led up to the shooting inside the store, leaving the final minutes of Marshall’s life largely hidden from public view.
News of his death traveled far beyond the Winburn neighborhood. Online memorials and a family fundraising page painted a picture of a man whose life stretched between Kentucky and Michigan, where his family hoped to bring his body home for services. Loved ones described him as a devoted son and brother, someone who lived for his boys and threw his energy into being the best father he could be. They remembered his upbeat spirit, the way he poured warmth and encouragement into the people around him, and how quickly he could light up a room despite the everyday struggles of working life. The fundraiser, created just days after the shooting, spoke to both the emotional shock and the practical hardship his family faced as they tried to give him a proper farewell and cover the cost of transporting him back to Michigan for burial.
Local coverage of violence in Lexington placed Marshall’s death within a grim pattern. Reporters noted that the killing at the Winburn Mini Mart pushed the city’s homicide count higher in a year already marked by gun violence, another life cut short in a convenience-store parking lot or inside a neighborhood business. His death was added to the tally on police and media dashboards, one more line in a growing list of names, dates, and locations that could never fully capture the personal loss felt by his family and friends.
For investigators, the case appeared focused from the start: a victim, a confined scene, and a suspect in custody almost immediately. Public statements from police and local news outlets emphasized that the investigation was active, but gave few specifics beyond the arrest at the store and the confirmation that detectives were continuing to piece together what had happened. Authorities called for anyone with additional information to come forward, directing potential witnesses to Lexington Police and to anonymous tip lines through Bluegrass Crime Stoppers and the P3 Tips app. As of the most recent publicly available reporting, no major follow-up stories have detailed the suspect’s identity, the exact charges, or the outcome of any court proceedings, leaving the legal chapter of Marshall’s killing largely unwritten in the public record even as his loved ones continue to remember him in online tributes and private grief.
