Close call.

On April 12 of last year, Black Entertainment Television's sixth annual College Hip-Hop Fest was held at Paramount's Kings Dominion Theme Park in Hanover County, Virginia. The park closed at 8 p.m., and about an hour later a scuffle occurred in the parking lot during which two men were shot. Stephen Allen Jr. suffered a chest wound, and Reggie Rodriguez was hit in the neck and a cheek. Both survived.

The shooter, identified by witnesses as David Gleason McKoy, was questioned by police. McKoy claimed that he had shot Allen and Rodriguez in self-defense. Allen, however, told police that he and Rodriguez were unarmed, a claim reiterated a few weeks later during a hearing. A key witness, Jonathan Maklin, backed Allen's contention.

When police could not find another gun, McKoy was arrested and charged with two counts of malicious wounding and two counts of possessing a firearm during commission of a felony.

On April 12 of this year (the first anniversary of the incident), McKoy entered Hanover County Circuit Court for what was supposed to be the start of his jury trial. Instead, Hanover Commonwealth's Attorney Kirby Porter stunned the judge and jurors by asking that the charges against McKoy be dropped.

The surprising turn of events began when a sheriff's investigator noticed discrepancies between statements by Allen and Maklin on the night of the incident and during the later hearing. There was also a recorded phone call between a prison inmate, Akim Barber, and his mother. Barber had been in the parking lot on the night of the shooting. He told his mother that Allen had given him a gun after being shot.

Porter also told the court that there was evidence that Maklin had also handed a gun to someone. "We believe," he told reporters after the proceedings, "that Mr. Allen was armed at the time of this event," and "was shot in the process of threatening Mr. McKoy's life." Emphasizing that "the commonwealth's attorney's office and the sheriff's office worked very closely to uncover the truth in this matter," he asserted: "We are satisfied that this is a just outcome based on the fact that we now know that Mr. McKoy acted in self-defense."

Allen and Maklin, who had been subpoenaed to testify during the trial, were arrested as they left the courthouse. Allen was charged with perjury and making false statements to law-enforcement officers; Maklin with making false statements.

McKoy told reporters that he had "no problem" with the outcome of the ordeal, but does not plan to attend future hip-hop fests.