NEW ORLEANS — Hundreds of classmates, friends and family gathered at Warren Easton today to honor the life of Kennedi Belton – a 15-year-old freshman who was shot and killed last weekend.
“She was my every day. Literally, my every day,” Kennedi’s mother Tiffany Brooks said. “The fact that she won’t be my left, my right, my up, my down… is so immense.”
Brooks’ world changed forever when her daughter’s life was taken.
Kennedi was at a slumber party when she was struck by a random bullet.
Police arrested 19-year-old Andre Skinner for negligent homicide in the killing. According to NOPD, Skinner said he was taking apart a gun in another room “to become more familiar” with it when the gun accidentally went off.
That bullet went through the wall, killing Kennedi.
It’s a loss that’s felt all over her school.
As the Warren Easton band played Friday to a crowd of their peers, it was clear that something was missing.
The class of 2026 hasn’t even finished their freshman year and they’re already down one classmate. One friend. One 15-year-old girl who should be there to graduate with them three years from now.
“I feel helpless, but not hopeless,” Kennedi’s friend Sejal Muhammad said. “Because I promised that girl until the day my heart stopped beating. It will be my mission to change this. Change this city, change our culture. Change it all.”
And it’s people like Muhammad that have been there for Kennedi’s mother and give her hope that the world could be a better place.
“My daughter was loved,” Brooks said. “Which I didn't expect anything other than that because she's a butterfly.”