Thirteen-year-old LaJuan Swopes was shot and killed on the evening of March 31, 2026, after a confrontation in the parking lot at a high school track meet held at the STEAM Academy at McCluer South-Berkeley High School in Ferguson, Missouri. LaJuan was at the meet to cheer on friends and to consider joining track in high school. He was an eighth-grader at Brittany Woods Middle School who helped run a family lawn care business and took pride in dressing well for school events.

Police say several teenagers had gathered as a confrontation escalated and that a gun was produced before coaches could intervene. LaJuan and his 15-year-old best friend were struck; LaJuan died at the hospital and his friend was critically injured. Officers arrested a 13-year-old boy a block from the school and recovered a handgun.

LaJuan’s family had already suffered the 2020 murder of the children’s father and a house fire the year before LaJuan’s death. His mother said she worried for the accused as well, calling him a baby and saying he could lose his life to the system. If anyone was at the meet or saw the parking lot confrontation, can you share what you witnessed?