On a Sunday morning in January 2021, a meeting between two teenage acquaintances outside the Terrytown Library tragically ended in the death of 19-year-old Ronnie Darnell 'Hotboy' Brown. The male victim, a resident of New Orleans, had driven to the West Bank with his 18-year-old girlfriend to meet Kemon ‘Tut’ Howard, who was 17 at the time, to discuss the exchange of a pistol.
The encounter took place in the 600 block of Heritage Place, with a large gathering of people nearby at the Terrytown Playground for an event.
After initially parking in the library's lot, Brown pulled his car onto Heritage Avenue and asked Howard to get in. Without any apparent provocation, Howard produced a pistol, reached into the open driver's side window, and fired three shots, striking Brown in the face and other parts of his body. Despite being mortally wounded, Brown managed to climb into the back seat and exit the vehicle through a rear door.
The investigation into the shooting led to the arrest of Kemon Howard of Harvey. Although he was a minor at the time of the offense, he was prosecuted as an adult. In November 2023, after about an hour of deliberation, a Jefferson Parish jury found Howard, then 20, guilty of the second-degree murder of Ronnie Brown.
