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COLUMBIA (WACH) -- At a community meeting Thursday, law enforcement officials still could not answer why 30-year-old Anthony Hill was shot and killed, his body then tied to truck and dragged for several miles."

“We know what happened, we just don’t know why,” says Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster, “that is the part we are really doing some in-depth investigation into.”

According to Foster, the victim and 19-year-old Gregory Collins who is charged with murder were co-workers and friends.

“On the day before the incident and the day of the incident, they spent quite amount of time together in recreation,” said Foster.

News of the June 2 shooting quickly spread throughout the community.

“I just wish that the community would focus on the fact that a life was taken,” said Newberry resident Antony Caldwell

Despite the large turnout at the event, authorities had no new information. 

The death has also gained the attention of the New Black Panther Party, who wants authorities to classify the murder as a hate crime.

“A hate crime murder is when someone is killed because of their race, because of their ethnicity because of their sexual orientation or because of their disability,” said U.S. District Attorney William Nettles.

Nettles made it very clear to concerned citizens that he will be the one to decide whether or not the incident will be prosecuted as a hate crime murder.  Nettles promised that when he makes his decision, he will let the community know.