On March 21, 2025, 14-year-old African American girl Anaya Zachary was fatally shot at the playground of her apartment complex in Baytown, Texas. The incident occurred around 4 p.m. following a verbal altercation earlier that day on the school bus with a 13-year-old male classmate from Baytown Junior School, part of the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District.
Witnesses reported that after the dispute, the boy went home, changed into black clothing, donned a black mask, retrieved a. 38 Special revolver from his parents' unsecured travel bag, and returned to the playground. There, he called out to Anaya by name and shot her four times—twice in the back as she attempted to flee, and twice more after she fell.
Anaya was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. A nearby woman holding her baby was also injured by a stray bullet; both were treated and released. The suspect was arrested and charged with murder; he remains in custody at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center.
In the aftermath, the suspect's parents, Kenneth Coney, 61, and Cassie Coney, 37, were charged with making a firearm accessible to a child, a misdemeanor offense. Investigators found that the revolver used in the shooting was stored in a zippered travel bag on the floor of the parents' bedroom without any locks or safety mechanisms. The teen had discovered the weapon weeks earlier while searching for hair trimmers.
Anaya's family, including her godmother Sonya Stanford and cousin Janet Zachery, expressed grief and called for accountability. They emphasized that Anaya, described as a sweet, honor-roll student, had been living with her godmother in Baytown to pursue better educational opportunities. Her body was returned to her mother in Louisiana for burial.
The Baytown community mourned the loss of Anaya, with local officials highlighting the tragedy as a stark reminder of the consequences of unsecured firearms and the importance of peaceful conflict resolution.
