A long, bitter family feud in Kenner, Louisiana, ended in gunfire on the evening of August 4, 2024, when 43-year-old Reginald Scott Jr. was shot and killed at the apartment complex where he lived in the 4200 block of Chateau Boulevard. Neighbors reported Scott walked across the parking lot to confront his former brother-in-law, Warren Smith, and gunfire erupted. Scott ran back toward his own apartment, leaving a trail of blood, but was followed and shot again; prosecutors later said he was struck three times, twice in the back. He was found mortally wounded outside his apartment by his son. I shot him, then fled to Baton Rouge where he was apprehended.

The hostility between the two men dated to 2011, after Smith’s sister, then married to Scott, committed suicide; Smith blamed Scott and the animosity reportedly simmered for years. Smith, 33 at the time of the shooting, was arrested and booked on second-degree murder charges. Bloody footprints were found tracing a path from Scott’s apartment to Smith’s and up the stairs to his bedroom.