Emuel Malachi Young was 17 when he was shot dead on the evening of October 29, 2024, at Tepe Park in Evansville, Indiana. A new father who had welcomed his son a week earlier, he was described by family as joyful and lovable and was a student at the Academy for Innovative Studies. Officers found Young’s body under a picnic shelter with multiple gunshot wounds.

Surveillance footage from the park captured two people shooting Young and fleeing. Earlier that day Emuel had been seen at a local mall with two other teenagers, 16-year-old Santana Cooper and 17-year-old Lakai Snaden; the clothing Cooper and Snaden wore at the mall matched what the footage showed on the shooters. Cooper and Snaden were arrested and charged with murder, pleaded not guilty at their initial court appearance, and are being held without bond at the Vanderburgh County Jail.

Emuel’s family and community remember a young man at the start of fatherhood whose life was cut short. If anyone has information about what happened at Tepe Park that night or knew Emuel, please come forward.