On August 26, 2025, Leroy Scott, 75, male, was shot multiple times outside his home on the 4100 block of Haden Avenue in West Palm Beach, Florida, a neighborhood near Bak Middle School of the Arts. Officers arrived around 8:20 a.m. and, despite life-saving efforts, pronounced Leroy Scott dead at the scene. Police emphasized the incident was in a residential area near the school but not connected to campus activity.
Detectives quickly identified a suspect: the victim's daughter, Leah Verona Scott, 43. According to authorities, she left the scene and was taken into custody around 10 a.m., roughly two miles away. She was later booked into the Palm Beach County Jail. Records and local reporting note that she was a teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School at the time of her arrest.
Investigators outlined the sequence of events in an arrest affidavit and subsequent court filings. They said Leah Scott approached Leroy Scott in the driveway, exchanged words for several seconds, then drew a handgun from her waistband and fired, striking him from behind. As he fell and turned toward her, she allegedly fired again and then stood over him and fired additional rounds “straight down.” One account quotes the daughter being told to “Get out of my face” shortly before the gunfire, a remark reportedly captured in the investigative narrative.
Police and city officials announced that Leah Scott was charged with first-degree murder and with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school under Florida statutes. A judge later denied bond, citing the gravity and alleged premeditation of the offense. The case was logged by the city as incident 20250013213.
In the days that followed, relatives described Leroy Scott, 75, male, as a steady family figure who “basically raised all of us,” and neighbors recounted the shock of a fatal shooting in the quiet, school-adjacent block. News outlets reiterated that the killing of Leroy Scott, 75, male, occurred near—but not within—the school grounds, and that lockdowns and heightened police presence were precautionary responses to an evolving scene.
