Austin Stewart was 22, a Black man, when he was killed on May 9, 2014, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in a crime that police later described as a robbery that ended in gunfire. That Friday evening, he was found slumped inside his car in the 1100 block of Swart Street at about 6:30 p.m., the kind of discovery that stops a neighborhood cold—an idling silence, a vehicle that shouldn’t be there, and then the realization that someone had been shot and left behind.
In the hours and days after
his death, investigators worked to piece together what happened before the gunshot and what was taken—or what the killer believed could be taken. Police ultimately said Stewart was shot during a robbery, suggesting an encounter that turned sudden and irreversible: a brief confrontation, a weapon produced, a decision made in seconds that would end a life and send the person responsible running.
Months later, the case broke open. Baton Rouge police announced that Brandon White, 31, had been arrested and charged with first degree murder for Stewart’s death. White was not in Louisiana when the charge caught up with him. He was located and arrested in July by the U.S. Marshals in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and later extradited back to face the allegation that he was involved in the shooting. The arrest signaled that investigators believed they had identified the person at the center of the robbery and the fatal shot, after a period when the public had little more than the fact of Stewart being found dead in his car.
Police also arrested a second man, Antonio Switzer, 26, alleging he played a supporting role rather than being the shooter. Switzer was booked on charges of accessory to first degree murder and accessory to armed robbery, a set of accusations that framed him as someone who helped, enabled, or assisted in the events surrounding the robbery and killing. Public reporting available about the case focuses on these arrests and charges, but does not provide further confirmed details about courtroom outcomes such as a trial verdict or final conviction.
