On April 13, 2023, 17-year-old Keydren Z’mari Pettiford was found unresponsive with gunshot wounds inside an abandoned mobile home on Carter Avenue in Durham, North Carolina. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene. Known to family as Ka$h, Pettiford had been enrolled at Hillside High School before transferring out in July 2022 and was involved with Job Corps, preparing to return to classes to finish his education.

Pettiford’s family said he was in the neighborhood caring for his grandmother when he was killed. In the months after the slaying, the Durham Police Department investigated; by October 2023 a 17-year-old, Naviair Joiner, was charged in connection with Pettiford’s murder and with two other shootings earlier that year that injured juvenile victims. The community and leaders called for more mental health resources, stricter gun laws, and greater engagement to confront youth violence.

If anybody knew Keydren, his routines, or has information about what happened that day, please come forward to authorities.