In the late summer of 2025, the life of 17-year-old Shinobi Pitts was tragically cut short. The young man was fatally shot on Thursday, August 21, 2025, near a gazebo just steps from his family's apartment on Pennsylvania Avenue in Savannah, Georgia. His death sent ripples of grief and a call for action throughout his community, which was already mourning the loss of another teenager to gun violence just a day later.
The circumstances leading to the shooting were rooted in a past conflict and escalated in the days just before his death.
Five days prior to the fatal shooting, an unsanctioned boxing event, promoted as 'Guns Down, Gloves Up,' was held in the same area. The event was intended to provide a way for young people to settle disputes with fists instead of firearms. Shinobi Pitts's family believes this event played a direct role in his murder. Pitts had a history with the individual later accused of his murder, having been in a fight with him back in the eighth grade. The suspect was reportedly present at the boxing event and, in the following days, reached out to Pitts, wanting to fight him again. On the evening of August 21st, Pitts was waiting by the gazebo for what he believed would be a fistfight.
According to witnesses, a car pulled up to the gazebo where Pitts was waiting, unarmed. Without any words being exchanged, shots were fired from the vehicle, striking and killing the teenager. The sudden and brutal nature of the act left his family and friends devastated. In the wake of the shooting, the Savannah Police Department launched a homicide investigation that quickly led to a suspect.
One individual, Zakai Low, was arrested in connection with the shooting. In November 2025, a Chatham County grand jury indicted Low, who was 17 at the time, on charges of malice murder, felony murder, false imprisonment, and two counts of aggravated assault. Another teenager, who was accused of supplying the gun to Low, was also arrested on gun charges but was later released on bond. The community held emotional vigils, mourning the loss of both Shinobi Pitts and 16-year-old Alexis Milton Jr., who was killed in a separate incident the following day, as they collectively called for an end to the cycle of youth violence.
