Yuri Hardy was 19 when he was shot and killed in Chicago on December 28, 2016. An honor student at Urban Prep Academy, he enjoyed designing clothes and competing in dance; family and friends remembered him as a fun-loving young man with entrepreneurial dreams. On the evening of December 28 he was walking in the 100 block of North Central Avenue, near Central and Harrison in the South Austin neighborhood, when a man approached and fired multiple shots, striking Yuri in the leg. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and died early the next morning; the Cook County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

No suspect was immediately identified, and the case remained unsolved for several months. In June 2017 Tyshaun Powell, a 20-year-old male, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and held without bond by the Gang Investigations Unit at Cook County Jail. Anyone who knew Yuri or has information about the shooting is asked to come forward.