Renard Joseph Matthews
Age 17
New Orleans, Louisiana
He was just walking his dog
He was walking his dog. At 6 p.m., his dog still by his side, he met his neighbor on the street. They talked briefly, then the boy walked on. “A nice young man,” his neighbor later observed.
His mother ran a neighborhood daycare center, and he played recreational football and basketball.
Just a block from St. Mary of the Angels church in New Orleans, Louisiana, Renard Joseph Matthews, 17, was shot in the head. Dozens of neighbors and family members gathered behind the police tape, but one broke through: “That’s my cousin!” a woman screamed. Matthews died at the scene.
