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Ke’Andre Johnson

Age 17

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Cut off after only one verse

He dreamed of a rap career. In 2018, he released his first song with fellow Pine Bluff, Arkansas, rapper Tei Tei.

But his family knew that beneath the musical persona, “Lil Dre” had a softer side. “We were more than cousins, we were best friends,” said Omaria Harris in a Facebook post. “Some people got years of their life taken from them, and I just wanna see all of mine,” Lil Dre wrote in 2017.

On June 21, 2018, Pine Bluff Police discovered a red Honda at the corner of 25th and Orange Streets where Ke’Andre Kyrek Johnson, 17, lay dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

By Elizabeth Meisenzahl · Age 17
Meet the Reporters

More than 80 musicians

Taveon Donte' Brooks

Basketball point guard, would-be rapper

Raydale Hill

Can no longer create his music

Elijah Foster

Dope Boy Gang. One less member.

Vicente Valero III

He was a modern Renaissance man

Beverly McBride

Purple hair, just like her dad

Ricky Ryon Willis III

YouTuber was destined for great things

Ramon Enriquez Barragan

Born, raised, died in Garden City

Robert Spencer Biggers Jr.

Local rapper who loved his familyi

Trevon Fareed Richardson

College, football, a scholarship. All lost.

James Claggion IV

Left hometown for fame in Atlanta

Zachary Mulford

Summer job turns into winter grief

Bryan Portales Escalante

Phone, wallet, shoes and, life — gone

Darion Gordon

Sixteen years erased by one bullet

Kaileigh Lin Collier

Was “more beautiful than she knew”

Carnandez A. Davis

New family never to be whole

Taylor Hayes

A star on her karaoke machine

Arthur Roger Holloway III

His obituary ran in two states

Montrell Anthony Mouzon

His dream of witnessing motocross shattered

Brandon Nash Hammett

‘The music master’ killed before college

Chazton Dejuan Artray Guidry

A dream ends, a sound silenced