De’Andre Gooden, an 18-year-old Black male from Jacksonville, Arkansas, was fatally shot on the evening of July 17, 2025, during an incident at Dupree Park. Gooden’s full name was reported by his family as D’Andre Augustus Gooden. He had been born March 9, 2007, in Vallejo, California, and was the firstborn and only son of Serpico and Myesha Gooden. He had attended Lonoke schools before finishing his education at Jacksonville High School, graduating only about two months before his death.
His family described him as energetic, ambitious and deeply interested in music, motorcycles and cars. He performed music under the name “Hoodrich Dre” and had recently made his first music video. According to his obituary, he had also applied to college with aspirations of studying law.
The violence unfolded shortly after 6:30 p.m. at Dupree Park on South Redmond Road. Jacksonville Police Department officers were dispatched at approximately 6:32 p.m. after receiving a report of a shooting near the park’s playground area. Before officers reached the park, they encountered a black passenger vehicle that had crashed at the intersection of West Main Street and T.P. White Drive. Investigators determined that the driver, Gooden, had been shot during the incident at Dupree Park. He was transported from the crash scene to a local hospital, but his injuries proved fatal. Police later publicly identified him after notifying his family.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators treated both Dupree Park and the location of the vehicle crash as parts of the same homicide investigation. Early reports said detectives had not yet publicly identified a suspect, and the Jacksonville Police Department appealed for information from anyone who might have witnessed the shooting or knew what led to it. The circumstances suggested Gooden had managed to leave the park in the vehicle after being wounded before crashing several minutes or moments later, although police did not initially disclose a motive or explain what confrontation preceded the gunfire.
The investigation soon produced multiple arrests. Jamie Williams of Jacksonville and Mersade Palmer of North Little Rock, both 20 at the time, were taken into custody shortly after the killing and charged with capital murder in connection with Gooden’s death. Authorities subsequently identified two additional defendants: Kyland Rogers of North Little Rock and David Brooks Jr. of North Little Rock. Rogers was 20 and Brooks was 19 when they became defendants in the case.
On July 26, 2025, Rogers and Brooks surrendered to authorities. Both were also charged with capital murder. With their surrender, four people were facing the same homicide charge in connection with the shooting: Williams, Palmer, Rogers and Brooks. All four were reported as having been booked into the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility. The filing of capital murder charges represented allegations by prosecutors and law enforcement; the charges themselves did not establish that any of the defendants were guilty.
Public reporting has not clearly established which defendant investigators believe fired the shot that killed Gooden, what specific role authorities allege each of the four defendants played, or what precipitated the encounter at Dupree Park. The publicly available reports reviewed also did not disclose a detailed motive. By April 2026, all four defendants were still described as facing capital murder charges as the case moved through the Pulaski County court system. No reliable online source located during this review documented a completed trial, guilty verdict, acquittal or final conviction in Gooden’s homicide.
Gooden’s death came at a moment when he had only recently finished high school and was beginning to plan his adult life. His family remembered him as protective of his sisters, someone who had played football and baseball and practiced karate as a child, and later as a young musician who enjoyed cooking, freestyling and spending time with friends. His funeral was held August 2, 2025, at Gaines Street Baptist Church in Little Rock, and cemetery records show he was buried that same day at Arkansas Memorial Gardens in Jacksonville.
