Twelve-year-old Derrick Michael Cash was found dying on the morning of Monday, January 3, 2022, on a desolate stretch of Michoud Boulevard in New Orleans. A worker discovered him on the ground, shot in the head and body; he was a student at Thurgood Marshall Success Prep and was remembered by his family as someone who loved his family and enjoyed playing basketball.

Derrick was found beside a black Jeep Cherokee with Texas license plates that had been reported stolen from the Pontchartrain Hotel valet two days earlier. Investigators tied that stolen Jeep to additional crimes: it was used in another theft from the same hotel the next day and was involved in a carjacking on City Park Avenue the following Sunday, during which a passenger in the Jeep brandished a gun.

Within weeks the New Orleans Police Department arrested two suspects. Eighteen-year-old Tyrese Harris was arrested in connection with a separate carjacking; during questioning he confessed to involvement in Derrick Cash’s death and evidence on his cellphone allegedly linked him to the crime. Nineteen-year-old Tyree Conerly surrendered to police at NOPD headquarters. Both were booked on a count of second-degree murder.

If anyone knew Derrick, saw that Jeep, or has information about the events on Michoud Boulevard that morning, please share what is known.