Duvander Haley, a 19-year-old male, was found in the early morning hours of July 14, 2017, lying face up on a sidewalk in the 8500 block of Jeanette Street in New Orleans. Responding officers arrived after a report of a man shot and discovered he had been hit multiple times; he was pronounced dead at the scene, leaving a quiet residential block suddenly turned into a taped-off crime scene and a morning marked by shock and unanswered questions.
As daylight spread across the Leonidas neighborhood, investigators worked outward from the spot where Haley fell, trying to piece together what had drawn him there and who had pulled the trigger. That same day, police publicly sought help identifying a man captured in an image tied to the killing, describing him as an unknown male believed to have been involved and urging anyone who recognized him to come forward. News coverage at the time also reported that security cameras had captured images connected to the shooting, reinforcing the sense that the answer might be just one clear identification away.
Within days, detectives said they had developed a specific suspect. On July 20, 2017, the New Orleans Police Department announced the arrest of Tyjon Luque in connection with Haley’s homicide. Police said Luque was located by officers near the intersection of Kraft Place and General DeGaulle Drive, then booked into Central Lockup on a charge of second-degree murder—an escalation from the earlier uncertainty into a named accusation with the weight of a life sentence hanging over it.
Court records later reflected that the case continued moving through the system well after the initial arrest, with docket materials listing Tyjon Luque under charges that included second-degree murder and obstruction of justice, and showing hearings scheduled years after the shooting. Separately, later reporting described Luque as still awaiting trial for years on a murder charge in New Orleans, suggesting the legal process around Haley’s death had stretched on long after the crime scene was cleared from Jeanette Street.
