In the late summer of 2014, a promising young life was tragically cut short in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Diamond Ebron, a 17-year-old Black female, was at her home on Ashwood Drive on September 2nd, preparing to leave town and distance herself from a past relationship. She had been dating 26-year-old Kenneth Thomas, but the relationship had ended, and Ebron was seeking a fresh start.
On that Tuesday, as she was in her driveway, Thomas appeared, armed with a handgun.
In a devastating act of violence, he shot and killed the teenager. Witnesses at the scene saw Thomas flee in his vehicle immediately after the shooting. The Jonesboro Police Department was alerted, and the search for Thomas began.
It wasn't long before a Craighead County deputy spotted Thomas's vehicle on Arkansas Highway 226. As the deputy initiated a traffic stop, the tragic series of events came to a swift and somber conclusion. Before the officer could approach the vehicle, a single gunshot was heard from inside. When law enforcement reached the car, they found Kenneth Thomas deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The investigation that followed involved the Jonesboro Police Department, the Craighead County Sheriff's Office, and the Arkansas State Police. Their findings confirmed the sequence of events as a murder-suicide, bringing a dark and final chapter to the lives of Diamond Ebron and Kenneth Thomas. The incident left a community in mourning and a family grieving the senseless loss of a young woman on the cusp of a new beginning.
