Shreveport Mass Shooting Victims Identified

A block party turned deadly, with 11 people shot, 4 fatally in Shreveport, La., just before midnight on July 4. The four people killed – which include two teenagers – have been identified by the coroner’s office as Moriz Aziz, 22, Jarike Dorsey, 19, Demorie Williams, 24 and Syncere Brown, 17.

Aziz and Dorsey were pronounced dead at the scene. Williams died less than an hour later from his injuries at a local hospital, Sgt. Angie Willhite of the Shreveport Police Department tells PEOPLE.

Continuing the search for bodies through the night, investigators found a fourth person — 17-year-old Brown — in a wooded area near the party just before 9:30 a.m., police said. The teenager was dead when officers found him, Willhite said.

The Shreveport Police Department described in a press release a scene of “crowds of frightened people fleeing from the intersection asking officers for help” in the moments after the shooting.

Just days later, standing in the same area in the pouring rain, some under umbrellas, others in drenched suits, neighbors gathered for a prayer vigil Thursday evening at the corner of Jones Mabry and Pearl Street, where the shooting broke out. Among the guests noted by The Shreveport Times was Alexis Rachal, who leaned against a loved one as she mourned the loss of Dorsey, with whom she shares a child.

“He was the love of my life,” Rachal said, shaking her head. “He was everything to me. He was also a father, a brother, a son, and they took him for no reason.”

“I feel so empty without him,” she added, her breath shuddering. “I know I got other people to help me, but he was everything to me, he was a bigger piece of my heart, and when they took him, they took my heart.” 

Brandon Patterson, the director of Shreveport Funeral Home & Cremation, told KSLA that he will be offering assistance to the families now faced with the unexpected cost of burying their loved ones.

“I just felt like I had to do something,” Patterson told the outlet. “And being in the death-care industry, this is my way of giving back to my own neighborhood.”

Shreveport has not had a single such deadly incident since 2003, when there was a quadruple murder in an apartment complex, Willhite said, noting that Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith could not recall another such incident beyond those two in his 42-year career with the department.

“Four of our community members were lost. There’s no way to make that okay,” Willhite said. “We’re just hoping for justice, that’s all we can do.”

The annual July 4 block party was a long-standing tradition in the neighborhood that had never before turned violent, local councilwoman Tabatha Taylor told the press. But shortly before midnight, a group of young men, who had not been invited to the party dropped by, Willhite said.

While police have not yet determined a motive for the shooting, investigators believe that the uninvited guests argued with another set of men at the party. Multiple people opened fire, police say, noting that both handgun and rifle casings were found strewn about the neighborhood. 

“The people of the MLK neighborhood are like a close-knit family,” Mayor Tom Arceneaux said in a press release Thursday. “That family has suffered more than its share of the gun violence this year.” 

Arceneaux added: “Every death, every injury resulting from gun violence affects us all, diminishes us as a community. These deaths, these injuries, are no exception.”

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One person remains in critical condition, police said Thursday night. No arrests have been made. “Right now, we have no suspects,” Willhite said. “And those are the worst words that can come out of my mouth.” 

She said that people have begun posting short video clips of the shooting to social media but nothing that would help identify suspects. “We’re starting to get information and that’s a good thing,” she said. “But there’s not as much as we would like and it’s not coming as fast as we would like.”

The Shreveport shooting was just one in a string of at least 23 mass shootings that occurred over the July 4 holiday weekend from Friday through Wednesday, according to Gun Violence Archive.

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