On the afternoon of Thursday, December 18, 2025, officers in New Orleans found the body of 47-year-old Kenyatta Packnett inside a white SUV on the 3000 block of Belfort Avenue in the Fairgrounds neighborhood. The Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office later determined Packnett had died two days earlier, on December 16, 2025, from multiple gunshot wounds.

Packnett, born in September 1978 and remembered locally as a 7th Ward legend, is survived by his mother, Corliss Marie Jones, several children and grandchildren. Loved ones planned a celebration of his life at the City of Love church on Palmetto Street.

Investigators linked Packnett’s killing to an earlier, non-fatal shooting the same day in which a delivery driver was shot while dropping off packages on the 3200 block of Trafalgar Street. Police identified Lance Daniel Dodd as the suspect and arrested him on charges that included second-degree murder, aggravated battery by shooting, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Did anyone in the Fairgrounds or 7th Ward hear or see anything on December 16 or 18 that could help the investigation?