Kobe White was a 15-year-old Black student at North Side High School in Lafayette, Louisiana. Beloved by family and friends, he enjoyed video games, basketball, and football. On June 21, 2022, he was shot and killed on the 800 block of South Sterling Street outside his family’s home shortly after being picked up by his older sister, Martasha Jones, following a week in juvenile detention.

Investigators say the shooting grew out of a plan to steal a gun. Texts and cellphone records indicate Jones messaged teens Charles Andrus and Jabori Caldwell to take a weapon from a friend; other messages show Kobe had acquired the firearm for his sister earlier that day. Police collected witness statements, phone records, and nearby surveillance footage. After arrests, detectives intervened when Jones tried to have incriminating messages erased.

In July 2022 a grand jury indicted Jones, then 19, Andrus, 16, and Caldwell, 17, on second-degree murder; the two teens were prosecuted as adults. In August 2023 Martasha Jones and Charles Andrus pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received 15-year prison sentences; Andrus was identified as the confessed shooter. The case against Jabori Caldwell remained pending on a second-degree murder charge. Did anyone who knew Kobe or was in that neighborhood on June 21, 2022, see or hear anything that could help explain what happened that night?