On a Friday afternoon, the day after Christmas, what began as a family shopping trip at the Town Center at Aurora mall in Aurora, Colorado, ended in tragedy. Seventeen-year-old Nathan Poindexter, Jr. was fatally shot on December 27, 2019, inside the JCPenney department store. The male teenager was a member of the Crowley Foundation's leadership program called Young Kings of Denver, which aims to uplift and inspire young men of color. His mentor described him as a leader among his peers with a contagious smile that could light up a room. Poindexter had aspirations of joining the Marines after his planned graduation in 2020.
The shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute with other young men. According to Poindexter's mother and siblings, he had been the target of taunting by a group of teens for some time, and she had previously reported them to the police and the school. On the day of the shooting, Poindexter and his family encountered Kamyl Xavier Garrette, then 18, and another young man, Senoj Jones, at the mall. A brief fistfight broke out at the bottom of an escalator. As Poindexter and his family were leaving the JCPenney store, Garrette returned and opened fire into the vestibule, striking Poindexter in the head. No one else was injured in the incident. Police who were already patrolling the mall responded to the reports of gunfire and found Poindexter wounded. He was transported to a local hospital where he later died.
The day after the shooting, Aurora police arrested Kamyl Xavier Garrette, who was identified through store surveillance footage. He was formally charged with first-degree murder. In October 2021, Garrette, then 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of a plea agreement. In December 2021, a judge sentenced him to 35 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed under the agreement. A second suspect, Senoj Jones, was also convicted in connection with the shooting. The victim's family stated that there had been an ongoing argument between Poindexter and Garrette.
