On a summer evening in Ridgeland, Mississippi, 23-year-old Kendrell Miller was enjoying a game of basketball at Midway Park on South Midway Avenue. It was June 18, 2019, a day that would end in tragedy. As Miller was on the court, a white truck drove by, and one of its occupants fired multiple shots into the group of young men playing. Miller was struck in the head, and what began as a recreational pastime turned into a scene of violence.
He was not the intended target of the shooting; by all accounts, he was simply there to play basketball with his friends.
The subsequent investigation by the Ridgeland Police Department unraveled a story of a dispute over the right to sell marijuana in the area. The conflict was between a group of individuals and another group of boys who were at the basketball courts that day. Lenzarius Roberts, who was 16 at the time, was identified as being involved in this feud. Upon learning that the rival group was at the park, he gathered five others to confront them. The group, consisting of Roberts, Christopher Coleman, Darius Farmer, Kaland McCollum, Christopher Tyler, and D'Antonio Guyton, drove to the park in the truck.
After an initial pass by the basketball courts, the group turned around in a nearby dead-end street, switched positions within the vehicle, and drove back towards the courts. It was during this second pass that Christopher Coleman, then 20 years old, fired the shots that tragically ended Kendrell Miller's life. Although some of the individuals involved considered Miller a friend and held no ill will towards him, their actions resulted in his untimely death. The investigation led to the arrest of all six individuals in the truck.
In October 2020, all six men pleaded guilty for their roles in the drive-by shooting. Christopher Coleman, the shooter, and Lenzarius Roberts, who planned the confrontation and drove the truck, both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. They were each sentenced to thirty years in prison, with the full term to be served without the possibility of parole. Kaland McCollum pleaded guilty to a charge of a drive-by shooting and received an 18-year sentence. Darius Farmer, Christopher Tyler, and D'Antonio Guyton pleaded guilty to various charges for their involvement in the planning of the incident and their attempts to cover up the crime.
