[1] Howard, who was working undercover as a narcotics investigator, was waiting in a vehicle in a parking lot to buy four pounds of cocaine when two drug dealers approached him.

It was later discovered that a man named Jaime Davidson had planned the robbery to target a rival drug dealer.

The decision was met with outrage by Howard's family, the Syracuse Police Department, and the prosecutors who tried Davidson.

[8][9][10] Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan has since pointed out that, while both Davidson and Lawrence have been released from prison, the three accomplices, who neither pulled the trigger nor ran the drug ring, remain in jail for life.

[1] In April 1990, Deputy Police Chief Herman Edge, who Howard considered his mentor, died from a heart attack.

At the time of Howard's death, he lived with Cynthia Boggs, who was his partner of 10 years and the mother of his two children, 7-year-old Wallie III and his infant daughter, 5-month-old Cyntia.

[1] On October 30, 1990, at approximately 2:20 p.m. in Syracuse, New York, Howard sat in a car in the parking lot of Mario's Foodmarket, waiting to purchase four pounds of cocaine from drug dealers he had arranged to meet.

Members of the Central New York Drug Enforcement Task Force had been alerted to the situation and were stationed nearby, ready to arrest the dealers after the transaction.

About half a block away, police stopped the vehicle Morales and Lawrence were fleeing in and arrested them.

[2][13] A fifth man, Lenworth Parke, who supplied the murder weapon and was considered Davidson's chief lieutenant, was also arrested and charged.

The federal government then chose to prosecute the five men as they wanted both Davidson and Parke to be convicted of Howard's murder.

On February 25, 1993, all five men were found guilty of intentionally killing a federal drug enforcement agent to advance a cocaine trafficking ring and on a second charge of murdering Howard to rob him of thousands of dollars.

The judge justified his decision by saying that Lawrence was acting on the orders of Davidson and that he did not know Howard was a police officer before shooting him.

[7] Davidson's sentence was commuted on the basis that while he had been incarcerated he had reportedly mentored and tutored over 1,000 prisoners to help them achieve their GED certificates.

[7] Upstate politicians, prosecutors, and police union officials reacted with outrage and disbelief that Trump had personally commuted the sentence of a convicted cop killer.

"[7] Duncan also pointed out that while both Davidson and Lawrence, the two people he believes are most responsible for Howard's murder, have been released from prison, Morales, Stewart, and Parke, remain incarcerated.

"[4] Further controversy arose in 2024 when it was learned that Davidson had since been convicted of domestic battery in Orange County, Florida.

[21] In May 2024, an Orange County jury found Davidson guilty of attacking his wife, Nayeli Chang.

When she told him to leave, Davidson allegedly grabbed her by the neck but eventually let go after she threatened to call the police.

The Tampa Bay Times reached out to a Trump campaign spokesperson through email seeking comment but did not receive a response.

[23] In 1994, the DEA and FBI started showing a video of a reenactment of Howard's murder at their training academies near Washington, D.C.

The video, titled, "Just Another Deal," warns agents about the dangers of undercover police work.