On the night of February 10, 2020, 20-year-old Adrian Carradine was inside a home on Alison Avenue in Bossier City with five other people when the house was suddenly riddled with bullets. Two individuals, later identified as Raymond Henry and Otis Ray Smith Jr., opened fire into the residence from the outside. A single bullet struck Carradine in the chest, leading to his death.
The male victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A Bossier City police officer on patrol in the neighborhood witnessed what appeared to be gunfire coming from a vehicle and attempted to initiate a traffic stop. The driver of the vehicle, a 15-year-old female, refused to stop and led police on a high-speed chase that crossed over into Shreveport. The pursuit came to an end on Clyde Fant Parkway, where the suspects' vehicle was stopped.
Following the chase, the 15-year-old driver was immediately taken into custody. Raymond Henry, who was 18 at the time, was also apprehended after a brief foot pursuit. The third suspect, 19-year-old Otis Smith, managed to escape that night but later turned himself in to the police. Investigators recovered more than 25 shell casings at the scene of the shooting. One of the firearms used in the crime was found after Smith had thrown it from the getaway car during the chase.
The three suspects, Raymond Henry, Otis Smith, and the juvenile female, were all charged with second-degree murder. The 15-year-old driver also faced a charge of aggravated flight from an officer. In a significant development in the case, a jury found Otis Ray Smith Jr. guilty of second-degree murder on November 22, 2023, after less than three hours of deliberation. Smith faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for his role in the death of Adrian Carradine.
