A sweet sixteen birthday party at Propst Park in Columbus, Mississippi, ended in tragedy on the night of July 20, 2019, when a fight at the celebration spilled outside the park’s community center and shots were fired into the crowd. Sixteen-year-old Arykah Patrice White, an innocent bystander not involved in the dispute, was struck by gunfire and pronounced dead at the scene.

The Columbus Police Department, assisted by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Columbus Lowndes Drug Task Force, investigated. Public tips led to the identification and arrest of 17-year-old Curtis Lathan within three days; he was charged with Arykah’s murder. In August 2022 a Lowndes County Circuit Court jury convicted Lathan of second-degree murder and sentenced him to 40 years in prison, and the Mississippi Court of Appeals later upheld the conviction and sentence.

Arykah was a student at Columbus High School and is remembered by family and the community. If anyone attended the party or has information about the events that night, please come forward.