On a Sunday morning in January 2021, 19-year-old Ronnie Darnell Hotboy Brown of New Orleans was shot to death outside the Terrytown Library after a meeting to discuss the exchange of a pistol. Brown had driven to the West Bank with his 18-year-old girlfriend to meet 17-year-old Kemon Tut Howard in the 600 block of Heritage Place, near a large gathering at the Terrytown Playground.

After initially parking in the library lot, Brown pulled onto Heritage Avenue and asked Howard to get in. According to reports, Howard produced a pistol without apparent provocation, reached into the open driver’s side window and fired three shots, hitting Brown in the face and other parts of his body. Brown managed to climb into the back seat and exit the vehicle through a rear door but was mortally wounded.

The shooting prompted an investigation that resulted in Howard’s arrest. A Jefferson Parish jury later found Howard guilty of second-degree murder. Did anyone who was at the Terrytown Playground that morning see details of the meeting or the vehicle involved?