In the winter of 2017, a young man's life was tragically cut short over a pair of sneakers. Seventeen-year-old James Anthony Smith, a student at Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., had just received an early Christmas present from his mother: a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers. He had only enjoyed them for four days before he was attacked. On the evening of December 18, on a basketball court at the Frederick Douglass Community Center in Southeast Washington, a confrontation over the shoes
turned deadly.
During the altercation, James was shot multiple times. Despite his injuries, he managed to run about a block before collapsing. When first responders arrived, they found him unconscious, unresponsive, and without his new shoes. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but succumbed to his injuries less than two hours later. The senselessness of the act left his family and the community reeling, with his mother lamenting that she wished she had never bought him the coveted sneakers.
The investigation into the death of the male teenager led police to a suspect several months later. In March 2018, a 16-year-old male from Southeast D.C. was arrested and charged with felony murder in connection with James Anthony Smith's death. Due to the suspect's age, his name was not publicly released. In August 2018, a D.C. Superior Court judge found the then 16-year-old guilty of fatally shooting James during the robbery. The conviction brought a measure of justice to a family still grappling with the profound loss of a son, brother, and friend, whose life was taken for a material possession.
