In the late hours of a Sunday in Hollywood, Florida, the creative hum of a recording studio was tragically silenced by the eruption of gunfire. It was August 16, 2026, when 40-year-old Antoine Etienne was fatally shot in a home on the 2700 block of Arthur Street that had been rented out and converted into a music-making space. Responding to calls just after 2 a.m., Hollywood police discovered a chaotic scene. Another man, a 23-year-old, was found shot and wounded in the street outside the home.
He was rushed to a local hospital and was expected to survive his injuries.
Inside a separate unit behind the main house, officers made a grim discovery. They found Antoine Etienne, who had been shot. He was transported to a hospital but ultimately succumbed to his injuries. It was later revealed that Etienne had been working in the studio at the time of the incident. Arrest documents noted that his final words were a plea, "don't kill me I'm just the engineer." The quiet residential neighborhood was left in shock, with one neighbor remarking that while they had noticed luxury cars at the property before, nothing so violent had ever occurred.
At the scene, police apprehended a suspect, 25-year-old Johntavis Leroy Stevenson. He was found inside the back unit holding a gun, cash, and cellphones. Stevenson, a convicted felon, was arrested and faced a slew of serious charges, including first-degree felony murder with a firearm, attempted felony murder with a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was subsequently booked into the Broward County Jail and held without bond. The investigation into the deadly recording studio session was ongoing as authorities collected evidence, including shell casings and video footage from neighboring homes which had captured sounds of an argument around the time of the shooting. This tragic event cut short the life of Antoine Etienne, leaving friends and family to mourn his sudden and violent death.
