On a late summer evening in Madison, Wisconsin, the life of 32-year-old Kendrith Young, a Black / African American male, was brought to a violent and tragic end. On August 2, 2017, Young was at a 7-Eleven convenience store on the city's south side when two masked men entered and shot him multiple times. The Dane County Medical Examiner's Office would later confirm that he died from multiple gunshot wounds.
Remembered by his loved ones as a devoted father, son, brother, and fiancé, his sudden death left a deep void in the lives of his family, including his 12-year-old daughter who would later have a letter read in court describing the last happy moments she shared with her father watching a funny movie the night before he was killed.
The investigation into the senseless killing relied heavily on surveillance footage from the 7-Eleven and a nearby bar. This crucial evidence led authorities to identify two suspects: Dametrius Reeves, then 35, and Curtis Langlois, then 37. The video evidence was instrumental in their subsequent arrests and convictions for their roles in the fatal shooting. The investigation revealed that Langlois was the individual who fired the shots that ended Kendrith Young's life and also injured another man who was with him at the time but survived.
Both men were brought to justice for the murder of Kendrith Young and received life sentences without the possibility of parole. During his sentencing, Curtis Langlois expressed a chilling lack of remorse. He reportedly laughed while surveillance footage of the shooting was played in court and openly stated that he didn't care about killing Young and had lost no sleep over it. At one point, he was even removed from the courtroom for making a threat toward the surviving victim. The court handed down an additional 40-year sentence to Langlois for the attempted homicide of the second man. The sentencing of both Reeves and Langlois brought a measure of legal closure to Young's grieving family, who had shared their profound loss and pain during the court proceedings.
