On the morning of May 2, 2026, 16-year-old Jayden Livingston was found fatally shot in his bed at a home on New Walkertown Road in Walkertown, North Carolina. His dog, Luna, was also killed in the same incident. Forsyth County deputies responded just before 6 a.m.

Jayden was a student at West Stokes High School and a quarterback who teammates and coaches remembered for leadership, loyalty and a generous personality. Investigators identified a suspect within days: 19-year-old John Claude Fowler Jr. was arrested on May 8 and initially charged with four counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. Court filings allege Fowler fired four rounds into the home from a vehicle and that he had previously lived at the residence and knew the location of Jayden’s bedroom.

Charges were upgraded on May 14 to murder and cruelty to animals, and later to first-degree murder, making Fowler eligible for the death penalty; he requested a capital defense attorney and bond was denied. No motive has been publicly disclosed. Did anyone in Walkertown know Jayden, his family, or have information about the events that led to that morning?