David L. Clyburn Jr., a 21-year-old man from Monticello, Arkansas, was rooted in his community long before the violence that claimed his life. Born on November 26, 1995, in Newport News, Virginia, he moved to Arkansas and attended both the Monticello and Drew Central school districts, later earning his GED through the Department of Workforce in Monticello. He took classes at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and worked at the local Save-A-Lot grocery store.
Away from work and school, his life revolved around his girlfriend, Tabitha, and their two young children, Jonylah and Bryson, as well as a close-knit extended family that included the memory of his late grandmother, Lilly Mae Clyburn.
In the early morning hours of Monday, October 16, 2017, the quiet of the Paradise Apartments complex on Highway 425, just south of Monticello, was shattered. Around 2:17 a.m., according to the Drew County Sheriff’s Office, a vehicle pulled into the apartment complex and the driver went inside one of the units. As that driver later came back out and attempted to leave, another vehicle was already present at the scene. A passenger from this second vehicle approached the first car “aggressively” with a handgun, closing the distance between them in a charged and volatile confrontation in the parking area.
As the first vehicle tried to get away, shots rang out in the darkness. Witness accounts reported multiple gunshots, and at least two rounds struck the man who had approached from the second vehicle. The wounded man was rushed by private vehicle to Drew Memorial Hospital, where emergency staff fought to save him. Despite those efforts, he was pronounced dead at 3:34 a.m. He was soon formally identified by authorities as David Clyborn a resident of Monticello whose ordinary October night had ended in sudden, disorienting gunfire outside the modest apartment complex he knew.
In the days that followed, the shock of his death gave way to grief and remembrance. Paradise Funeral Home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, announced services for David, noting his devotion to his children and the affection he held for his family and friends. A family gathering was scheduled for October 25, 2017, followed by a funeral service on October 26, giving relatives, classmates, coworkers, and neighbors a chance to say goodbye and to reflect on the young father’s short life and unfulfilled plans.
Law enforcement, meanwhile, continued to sift through the events at Paradise Apartments. The original public statements from the Drew County Sheriff’s Office described the sequence of vehicles arriving, the armed approach by a passenger from the second car, the attempt by the first car to flee, and the gunfire that fatally wounded David. At the time of that reporting, investigators emphasized that the case was still under active review and that they were working to determine the exact series of actions and whether any charges would be filed. Subsequent publicly accessible news and obituary records do not document any specific arrests, named suspects, charges, trials, or convictions connected to David Clyburn’s death, leaving the official resolution of the shooting unclear in the public record and his family’s loss framed by unanswered questions about what, legally, came of the investigation.
