A long and bitter family feud in Kenner, Louisiana, ended in gunfire on the evening of August 4, 2024, taking the life of Reginald Scott Jr. A 43-year-old Black man, Scott was shot and killed during a confrontation at the apartment complex where he lived. The man responsible was his former brother-in-law, who also resided in the complex.
The hostility between Scott and his killer, Warren Smith, stretched back more than a decade.
According to authorities, the conflict began in 2011 after Smith’s sister, who was married to Scott at the time, committed suicide. Smith held Scott responsible for his sister’s death, creating an animosity that simmered for years. Both men lived in the same apartment complex in the 4200 block of Chateau Boulevard.
On the night of the shooting, at about 9:30 p.m., witnesses told police that Scott walked across the parking lot to confront Smith at his apartment. Gunfire erupted, and Scott was struck. He turned and ran back toward his own apartment, leaving a trail of blood, but Smith followed him and shot him again. Prosecutors would later state that Scott was shot three times, twice in the back. He was found mortally wounded outside his apartment by his own son.
Immediately after the shooting, Smith was reportedly heard saying, “Reg ain’t gonna mess with me no more. I shot him.” He then got into a vehicle and fled to Baton Rouge. He was apprehended there several hours later by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. Investigators in Kenner found bloody footprints leading from Scott’s apartment to Smith’s and up the stairs to his bedroom.
Warren Smith, 33 at the time of the shooting, was arrested and booked with second-degree murder. During his trial in Jefferson Parish, prosecutors argued that the killing was not an act of self-defense, telling jurors that Smith had purchased the 9mm pistol just two weeks earlier and was “waiting for any opportunity to kill his brother-in-law.” On April 22, 2026, after about three hours of deliberation, a jury found Smith, then 35, guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. As of April 2026, he was awaiting a sentencing hearing scheduled for the following month, facing a punishment of up to 40 years in prison.
