A celebration on Jordan Street in New Iberia turned deadly on the late afternoon of May 12, 2024. Twenty-one-year-old Daiquan Branch, known as Boog to family and friends, was attending a birthday party with relatives and children present when gunfire erupted around 5:30 p.m. Branch was struck and later died; his young daughter and other witnesses were at the scene, and an eyewitness described a girlfriend attempting to shield him as he lay wounded and tried to speak his last words.

The New Iberia Police Department named 23-year-old Edward King Jr. as a suspect and issued an arrest warrant charging him with second-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm. Police also arrested 24-year-old Devin Patterson on a charge of accessory after the fact to second-degree murder. Branch was a father to two children; his family and the community were left mourning after the Mother’s Day shooting.

If anyone at the party or nearby that day has information that hasn’t been shared with investigators, please come forward.