On the evening of August 16, 2014, a family returning from a reunion was driving along Prescott Road in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when their journey was shattered by an eruption of violence. Seven-year-old Terrez Coleman, a male, was in the car with his parents and two sisters when an individual in a passing vehicle opened fire. A single bullet struck his 11-year-old sister in the stomach before fatally striking Terrez in the heart, killing him instantly at the scene.
For more than a
decade, the case of the young boy's death remained a painful, unsolved mystery for his family and investigators. The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office had only a grainy photograph of a white four-door sedan and a vague description of the vehicle to go on. Despite public appeals for information and numerous investigative leads, a suspect remained elusive, leaving the community with unanswered questions and a family grappling with a senseless loss. The reason behind the shooting was as unknown as the person who pulled the trigger, adding to the baffling nature of the crime.
A significant breakthrough in the cold case came nearly a decade later, thanks to advancements in technology. In May 2025, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of 32-year-old Rashad Montreal Turner. Investigators utilized digital forensic analysis and open-source intelligence software to finally link him to the 2014 shooting. A crucial piece of evidence was a Smith & Wesson. 40 caliber handgun that had been recovered from Turner during a traffic stop in 2016. At that time, the gun was reported as stolen, but it wasn't until the application of new technology that authorities could definitively connect the weapon to the shell casings found at the scene of Terrez Coleman's death and place Turner there on the day of the shooting. Turner was subsequently booked into jail and faces charges of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted first-degree murder.
