Emuel Iziah Torres was 16 when he was shot and killed in Topeka, Kansas, on the evening of April 15, 2021. Reports identify him also as Emmanuel Iziah Ulysses Torres. The shooting occurred around 7:22 p.m. near S.E. 6th Avenue and Chandler Street; officers found him with a gunshot wound and he was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.

The investigation stretched for months and the family described ongoing grief and unanswered questions about why this happened. On December 14, 2021, 23-year-old Topeka resident Clint William Smith was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in connection with Torres’s death; he was booked into the Shawnee County Jail without bond. The arrest coincided with the 22nd birthday of Torres’s uncle, who had died in a separate violent incident the year before.

If anyone has information about what led to the shooting near S.E. 6th Avenue and Chandler Street on April 15, 2021, please come forward.