On the evening of March 12, 2022, 17-year-old Karrington Len Jade Smith of St. Helena Parish was riding in a car on Siegen Lane in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when a single gunshot struck her in the back. Smith, who was 26 weeks pregnant and expecting a son she planned to name Dallas Layne Husser, was in the front passenger seat with four friends en route to Top Golf. According to investigators, a passenger seated behind her, 23-year-old Chad Blackard, was handling a handgun and said he accidentally squeezed the trigger while repositioning it.

Smith was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition and both she and her unborn son died of the wound. She initially told authorities her own gun had discharged from her purse, but the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office later identified Blackard as the shooter. Blackard was arrested and charged with negligent homicide, third-degree feticide, and illegal use of a weapon. Smith, known as Jade, was a junior volunteer firefighter and had just learned she passed her final tests to graduate the day after her death.

Does anyone have information about the evening on Siegen Lane or knew Jade and her plans that night?