A Mardi Gras outing turned fatal for 17-year-old Kip Christensen Lewis on the evening of February 18, 2023. Attending the Krewe of Gemini parade near Clyde Fant Memorial Parkway in Shreveport, he was struck by a single gunshot around 5:45 p.m., taken to Ochsner LSU Health, and pronounced dead at about 6:17 p.m. Kip was a junior at Elysian Fields High School in Texas and is remembered as an adored son and doted-upon brother; his father served on the school board and his mother was an elementary school teacher. The district closed campuses on the day of his funeral and offered counseling to students and staff.

Investigators say a group of people, including Kip and a 16-year-old, had been playfully chasing one another with plastic swords near a vehicle when the juvenile reportedly produced a handgun and a single shot struck Kip. A 16-year-old male later turned himself in to the Caddo Juvenile Justice complex and was charged with negligent homicide amid accounts characterizing the shooting as unintentional. Does anyone have information about that evening or remember seeing activity near Clyde Fant Memorial Parkway during the parade?