James Henderson, 49, a Black man, was killed on December 13, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
That Saturday night, police records place the homicide at 1102 Hendee Street, with the call time recorded around 9:30 p.m. and the incident logged under case number L-15654-14. In the account summarized by New Orleans police, Henderson was found inside the home on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
In the weeks that followed, the public record described the case as still open, with no suspect identified and no arrest listed in the department’s homicide roster for that year. The same roster entry shows a named homicide detective assigned to the case, but it does not report any charged person, court proceedings, or a cleared disposition.
Away from the stark language of the case log, the death rippled outward into the kind of grief that paperwork can’t capture. An obituary published days later remembered Henderson as a son, father, grandfather, brother, and devoted companion, naming family members who survived him and the funeral home entrusted with arrangements.
