Jaiden Benitez was a 20-year-old Black man from Janesville, Wisconsin, who worked shooting music videos and ran his own small business. On the evening of April 5, 2024, he was in the driver’s seat of his SUV near the 1300 block of Nelson Avenue in Beloit to sell marijuana to two people who got into the back seat. According to a criminal complaint, those two pulled firearms in an attempted armed robbery; Benitez tried to drive away, a back-seat occupant fired several shots into the vehicle, and Benitez was fatally struck. His SUV then hit a pole and he died at a local hospital.

Beloit police arrested 16-year-old Andre J. Rainey Jr. on April 11; the complaint named him as one of the two in the back seat but said an accomplice fired the fatal shot. Rainey’s case moved from adult court back to juvenile court, where he was convicted as party to the crime of armed robbery and given the maximum juvenile disposition of five years of supervision. The shooter has not been arrested and a third person seen running from the scene on doorbell camera remains sought. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Beloit Police Department or Crime Stoppers.