Seventeen-year-old Deandre Jamar Thomas was shot inside a home on Old Stage Highway near Smithfield, Virginia, on the afternoon of January 28, 2013. Emergency crews airlifted him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital around 4 p.m., but he died of his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly before 10 p.m. that evening. Deandre was a student at the alternative school in Windsor.

Investigators from the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office searched the residence and recovered a small handgun. Authorities did not release details about what led to the shooting, and no arrests or publicly identified suspects have been announced. Family members publicly expressed differing reactions: his grandmother, Evelyn Cooper, said she believed the shooting was accidental, and his uncle, Toby Thomas, urged young people to put down guns.

The investigation remains open and investigators have asked the public for help; anyone with information about what happened that afternoon is asked to come forward.