Fourteen-year-old Xavier Quinn was an incoming freshman at St. Francis DeSales High School in Columbus, Ohio, and had just joined the school’s football team where his older brother Quintell also played. Xavier wore jersey number 29 and was remembered by his coach, Ryan Wiggins, as quiet, confident and always smiling.

On the evening of July 26, 2019, after finishing a summer program and attending football practice earlier that day, Xavier was at his family’s home at 898 Weldon Avenue in the North Linden neighborhood. Investigators say his 15-year-old cousin, Don Jarvontia Braggs-Rash, was playing with a gun that accidentally discharged, striking Xavier in the chest. Braggs-Rash fled the scene but was later arrested nearby and led police to a trash can where the gun had been hidden. Preliminary interviews reportedly did not reveal any dispute between the cousins.

Braggs-Rash was charged as a juvenile with murder; a magistrate released him to his grandmother’s custody on house arrest with an electronic monitor after a July 29, 2019 hearing. The juvenile court later sentenced him to 18 months in a Department of Youth Services facility in August 2020.

Did anyone in North Linden see Xavier that evening or have information about what happened at the Weldon Avenue home?