On July 1, 2023, gunfire at a residence on South Railroad Avenue in Brookhaven, Mississippi, killed 30-year-old Ladarius Rockingham. His 28-year-old sister, Shanecia Ferdinand, was also killed; Ferdinand was pregnant and her unborn child did not survive the attack. Brookhaven’s police chief described the shooting as stemming from some type of domestic situation.

Police identified 21-year-old Kelvin White as a suspect; he fled the scene but was located shortly afterward in the county with assistance from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and arrested. He was initially charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of first-degree murder and held without bond after a July 3, 2023, court appearance. On July 12 the charges were changed to three counts of first-degree murder, with bond set at $500,000 on each count, and the case was bound over to the grand jury.

This was the Ferdinand family’s third major loss in 2023, following an uncle’s death in an apartment fire on the same block earlier that year. If anyone has information about the July 1 shooting or knew Ladarius or Shanecia, please share what you know.