Comarri Thompson, 18, a male who was Black/African American, died in a drive-by shooting in North Austin in the pre-dawn hours of July 19, 2025. Shortly after 2 a.m., a frantic 911 call drew officers to the intersection of East Braker Lane and Dessau Road, where they found a young woman crying out for help and two people wounded by gunfire. The man, identified as 18-year-old Comarri Thompson, was pronounced dead at the scene; the woman, his girlfriend, survived her injuries.
Police said shots were fired from another vehicle that sped away into the dark, leaving shattered glass, shell casings, and a grief-stricken survivor to tell them what had happened.
In those first hours, detectives appealed for tips and sifted through evidence at 804 East Braker Lane, piecing together a final timeline for Comarri Thompson, 18, male, as they canvassed for surveillance video and witnesses. The initial picture was spare but chilling: a couple stopped at a light when an unknown car rolled past and gunfire erupted, a burst that ended a life and altered another. The Austin Police Department’s first public notice named the victim and confirmed his age and gender while noting the woman’s injuries, as the agency asked the community for information.
Within days, the investigation moved from pleas to pursuit. Detectives obtained a murder warrant, and the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force tracked down a suspect. On July 29, 2025, authorities arrested 25-year-old Kenan Greene in East Austin in connection with the shooting that killed Comarri Thompson, 18, male, and wounded his girlfriend. Police said Greene was taken into custody and booked into the Travis County Jail on a murder charge, a step that shifted the case from a search for an unknown assailant to the slow, exacting march of the criminal courts.
Local outlets chronicled the case as it unfolded, naming the victim as Comarri Thompson, 18, male, and confirming the scene at East Braker and Dessau. Community remembrances noted the loss of another young life to gun violence, even as official updates underscored that an arrest had been made and the legal process was underway. For the young woman who survived and for the family of Comarri Thompson, 18, male, the official announcements and docket entries are only markers in a longer passage through grief.
