In the early morning hours of June 6, 2021, a violent incident unfolded on the north side of Flint, Michigan, claiming the lives of two family members and leaving a community in mourning. Samantha Stewart, a 33-year-old Black female, had been attending a block party in the area of the 900 block of East York Avenue. The gathering, which had drawn a number of people to the neighborhood, ended in tragedy when gunfire erupted as attendees were beginning to disperse.
Samantha was not the only victim of the shooting that occurred that Sunday. She was accompanied by her cousin, 28-year-old Jarelle Stewart, who was also struck by the gunfire. According to reports from the scene, the cousins were in the process of leaving the event when the shooting started. Emergency responders arrived to find a chaotic scene, but both Samantha and Jarelle succumbed to their injuries, marking a double homicide that shook the local community. A third individual, whose identity was not released, was also wounded during the incident and was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition.
The investigation into the deaths of Samantha and Jarelle Stewart was launched immediately by the Flint Police Department, with assistance from Crime Stoppers of Flint and Genesee County. In the months following the shooting, authorities reached out to the public for leads, urging anyone with information about the shooter or the circumstances leading up to the violence to come forward. Despite these efforts and the collection of evidence from the scene, public records and media reports from late 2021 indicated that the case remained unsolved, with no specific suspects named or arrests made in connection with the double murder. The family was left seeking answers as detectives continued to search for the person or persons responsible for the sudden loss of the two cousins.
