A gathering at Baertown Park in McComb, Mississippi, on the afternoon of May 2, 2025, ended in gunfire that killed 17-year-old Gary Wayne Thompson III. Gary, a junior at McComb High School, was struck in the head around 5:25 p.m. during what was reported as a Senior Skip Day event and died that Friday night after being transferred for advanced medical care. A second, unidentified teenager was wounded with a gunshot to the buttocks.

Police from the McComb Police Department and the Pike County Sheriff’s Department turned the park into a crime scene and arrested four people in the immediate response: three juveniles and one adult. Authorities later announced the arrest of 17-year-old McComb High School student Kendric Cowart, charged as an adult with first-degree murder and held at the Pike County Detention Center. At a June 2025 preliminary hearing, Cowart’s attorney said he acted in self-defense during a shootout; a judge ordered him held without bail and bound the case over to a grand jury.

Gary’s school district expressed condolences to his family and those affected by the violence. If anyone at Baertown Park that afternoon has information about what happened, please come forward.