Ladarius Evans

Ladarius Evans was a young man from Miami who grew up looking after his three younger brothers and a younger sister. Born on May 2, 1991, Ladarius was remembered by his mother, Gwendolyn Evans, as a boy she tried to keep out of trouble while she held down two jobs. He had curfews and chores, and as a child, he played running back for the Overtown Rattlers Optimist Club and made the honor roll at Horace Mann Middle School. His mother did her best to shield him from the street life of their Brownsville neighborhood. As he got older, he had some run-ins with the law, but in early 2011, his mother moved the family to a quieter residential area in Miami Gardens, hoping the change of scenery would help.

Tragically, violence found Ladarius Evans more than once. A year before his death, on October 3, 2011, he was the victim of a targeted shooting. While waiting for his girlfriend at a bus stop on Miami Gardens Drive, a man with an AK-47 jumped out of a Nissan sedan and opened fire. Ladarius ran but was shot twice in the legs. He miraculously survived after being airlifted to a hospital. He later identified his attacker to police from a news story, telling his mother the shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute involving his brother. The suspect was charged, and Ladarius began to recover from his wounds.

Just over a year later, Ladarius, a 21-year-old Black man, could not escape his fate. On the night of November 12, 2012, another burst of gunfire erupted, this time in Miami's Model City neighborhood. Shortly before midnight, Miami Police received numerous calls about a shooting. Officers arrived at the area of Northwest 11th Avenue and 43rd Street to find a silver Nissan sedan riddled with bullets. Inside the car, they found Ladarius Evans; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two other people were wounded in the attack. One was Ladarius's brother, who was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition. A third victim, who was outside the car, was grazed by a bullet, treated at the hospital, and released. Family members at the scene confirmed Ladarius's identity to reporters, their grief unfolding under the glare of police lights. The car was found about six blocks from where investigators believe the shooting may have actually occurred.

The Miami Police Department launched a homicide investigation, but the circumstances of the shooting remained murky. Investigators were unsure if it was a drive-by shooting or if someone had walked up to the vehicle and opened fire. In the immediate aftermath, police had not identified any suspects or determined a motive for the triple shooting that killed Ladarius and left his brother fighting for his life.

Years have passed, and the case of who killed Ladarius Evans remains unsolved. His death was part of a wave of gun violence that plagued Miami's historically Black neighborhoods, where shootings often received little sustained attention. His mother, who had tried so hard to give him a safer life, was left to mourn a son she had already almost lost once before. An obituary for another man in 2021 listed Ladarius Evans and his son, LaDarius Evans, Jr., as preceding him in death, a quiet acknowledgment of the generations affected by his loss. As of the latest available information, no arrests have been made. Authorities continue to ask anyone with information to come forward and have urged the public to contact Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.