LaJuan Swopes was a 13-year-old boy with a keen eye for fashion and a strong work ethic to match. He and his brothers and cousins ran a lawn care business, and LaJuan took pride in using his earnings to dress well. An eighth-grader at Brittany Woods Middle School in University City, he was looking forward to his middle school graduation and was already thinking about the outfit he would wear.
His life, however, was tragically cut short on the evening of March 31, 2026, in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. He was at a high school track meet at the STEAM Academy at McCluer South-Berkeley High School, not to compete, but to cheer on friends and family and to get a feel for the sport he hoped to join in high school.
As the track meet ended, a confrontation began to build in the school parking lot. Several teenagers appeared ready to fight as others gathered to record the incident on their phones. Before coaches could step in, a gun was drawn and shots were fired. LaJuan was hit, as was his 15-year-old best friend who was critically injured. LaJuan was rushed to the hospital, but he did not survive. The tragedy was another devastating blow for his family, who had already endured the murder of the children's father in 2020 and the loss of their home in a fire just a year prior to LaJuan's death.
Police quickly apprehended a suspect just a block away from the school and recovered a handgun. The alleged shooter was also a 13-year-old boy. He was charged in family court with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and two counts of armed criminal action. The young suspect appeared in court virtually from a juvenile detention center and was ordered to remain in custody. Authorities have not been looking for any other suspects. The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, and a future hearing will determine whether the accused will be tried as an adult. In the midst of her grief, LaJuan's mother expressed empathy for the boy who took her son's life, referring to him as a "baby" because of his young age and lamenting that he too could "lose his life to the system."
