On the evening of April 14, 2021, 12-year-old Brian Derek BJ Henderson was fatally shot in the parking lot of a Kare Pharmacy in Leavenworth, Kansas. He was in the backseat of a black Volkswagen Jetta when shots rang out around 6:45 p.m.; police initially found shell casings at the scene. About an hour later Kansas City officers notified Leavenworth police that a child had been brought to Children’s Mercy Hospital with a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead. The vehicle that transported the child matched the Jetta from the shooting scene.

Investigators quickly identified three suspects. In the early morning after the shooting a SWAT team arrested 25-year-old Darvon Thomas of Leavenworth and two juveniles, a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old from Kansas City, Kansas. The shooting reportedly followed a gun deal that went wrong after an acquaintance of Henderson’s older sister allegedly tried to sell what turned out to be a BB gun; when the suspects realized the deception one of them opened fire. A bullet also struck a nearby red sedan carrying a woman and her infant daughter; they were unharmed.

Charges were filed against those taken into custody. The family remembered BJ as a bright, beloved child and the youngest of five siblings. Does anyone have information about the shooting or knew BJ and the family?