Seventeen-year-old Saturah Hayes, a Haywood High School student, was fatally shot on the evening of May 8, 2026, in Brownsville, Tennessee. She had been at Webb Banks Passive Park with classmates taking prom photographs when gunfire erupted. Four other people were wounded. The prom was canceled and schools closed the following Monday so the community could grieve.

Teachers and the school superintendent remembered Saturah as a dedicated, hardworking student with a positive attitude and a bright future. Community members lined the streets as her body was escorted to the funeral home, and her mother publicly asked anyone with information to come forward.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Brownsville Police Department led the inquiry and investigators identified a suspect. On May 19, 2026, a Haywood County Grand Jury indicted 18-year-old Dequarius DQ Lax on 22 counts, including first-degree murder for Saturah and six counts of attempted first-degree murder for those wounded. Authorities say Lax is at large and considered armed and dangerous; the U.S. Marshals Service is assisting in locating him.

Does anyone who was at Webb Banks Passive Park that night or who knows anything about the suspect or victims have information to share?