Fredrick Corner

In the early hours of August 2, 2015, the life of Fredrick Corner, a 25-year-old Black man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was violently taken. He was not alone. In a brutal triple homicide, his friends Kevin Ford, 24, and Antoine Harris, 23, were also killed. The shooting happened around 1 a.m. in the 2300 block of Jefferson Avenue. A woman living nearby told reporters she heard about ten gunshots, and when she walked outside, she discovered the three men’s bodies in her driveway. All three had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead at the scene.

The Baton Rouge Police Department immediately launched an investigation into the killings. In the initial days, authorities had not established a motive or named a suspect, and they appealed to the public for any information. The incident was part of what residents called a deadly summer, leaving the community shaken. Some neighbors reacted to the violence by calling for prayer, expressing a need for peace in their homes and neighborhoods. For months, the case remained without a public resolution, leaving the families of the three young men waiting for answers and justice.

A major breakthrough came in May 2016. Investigators connected the Jefferson Avenue triple homicide to a wider web of violence that had plagued the Baton Rouge area over several years. They identified a suspect who was already incarcerated for an attempted murder charge. Police announced that they had gathered information linking this man to a total of five separate homicides, including the one that claimed the lives of Corner, Ford, and Harris.

Authorities arrested Jeremy Montrell Robertson, 25, of Baton Rouge. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the August 2015 killings of Fredrick Corner, Kevin Ford, and Antoine Harris. In addition, he was charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the July 2015 death of Kerry Green and the November 2010 death of George Dyson. Robertson also faced two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

While being transported from Louisiana State Police headquarters, Robertson maintained his innocence. However, a Baton Rouge Police Department spokesman stated there was strong evidence against him, telling the media, "This individual, whenever he had altercations with individuals, he resolved his altercations with gunplay." Records showed Robertson had previously been charged with a 2009 murder, but a grand jury returned a no true bill in that case in 2010. As of the announcement of his arrest in May 2016, Robertson was facing prosecution for the five murders.