Police say another boy was wounded as families and athletes were leaving a 20-school meet at a Ferguson campus.
FERGUSON, Mo. — A 13-year-old boy has been charged in juvenile court after prosecutors said gunfire erupted at the end of a school track meet in Ferguson on March 31, killing 13-year-old LaJuan Swopes and wounding another boy in a crowded parking lot.
The shooting turned a routine school event into a homicide case involving children on all sides. Police said the meet had drawn students from 20 schools to the STEAM Academy at McCluer South-Berkeley High School. By the next day, the accused boy, also 13, was facing second-degree murder, first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action. Investigators had a suspect in custody within minutes, but by Monday they still had not publicly explained what led to the gunfire or how the boy got the weapon police said they recovered.
The known timeline begins Tuesday afternoon, when the meet started at 4 p.m. and families, coaches and athletes gathered on the Ferguson-Florissant campus for competition. Police said officers were called for shots fired at about 7:02 p.m., as the event was ending and people were heading to cars. In the confusion, officers found two boys with gunshot wounds in the parking lot and quickly moved them to medical care. LaJuan later died. Another boy was hospitalized with serious injuries. Police said the suspected shooter was found about two blocks away with a gun and taken into custody. Chief Troy Doyle called the shooting “a heartbreaking incident” that hit students and families especially hard. The arrest ended any immediate public threat, but it did not settle the central question of what caused the confrontation in the first place.
Officials have released some facts and left many others unanswered. Police have publicly identified LaJuan, a Brittany Woods Middle School student in the University City district, as the boy who died. The accused boy has not been named because he is a juvenile. Local reporting has described the wounded victim as 15, though authorities have not given a full public account of his identity or current medical condition beyond saying he was seriously hurt. Police have said they are investigating whether social media played a role in the dispute. A coach, Aleese Roberts, said in a public post reported by local media that she saw a crowd forming, tried to break up what looked like a fight and then witnessed the shooting. By Thursday, police said they were not looking for any other suspects. They also said they still had not accessed the phones of the teens involved, a sign that some key pieces of evidence may still be under review.
The impact spread well beyond the parking lot. Ferguson-Florissant officials said none of their students or families were involved, even though the shooting happened on one of their campuses. The district told families the violence broke out as people were leaving and thanked law enforcement for moving quickly. In University City, Superintendent Sharonica Hardin-Bartley said the district’s “hearts are with the family and loved ones of the student we lost,” as well as the wounded student and all others touched by the shooting. The district sent its trauma response team to Brittany Woods Middle School the next day. Ferguson-Florissant also said it added security when students returned to class, and local leaders, including the mayor, police chief and fire chief, were present at school Wednesday morning. Those steps showed how a shooting tied to a single evening event quickly became a school-community crisis across district lines.
The personal details that emerged after the shooting gave the case a sharper human weight. LaJuan’s mother, Jennifer Macone, said she had called her son at 6:08 p.m. that evening and even bought him dinner before learning he had been shot less than an hour later. She told First Alert 4 that LaJuan went to the meet to support relatives and friends and to get a look at high school track because he hoped to compete next year. Macone said her son had already lived through deep family loss after his father was killed in 2020 and the family home burned last summer. Friends and relatives described LaJuan as active, ambitious and eager for middle school graduation, which his mother said was set for May 27, the day after his 14th birthday. Macone also said she felt mercy for the accused boy, calling the case a tragedy for more than one family. Her grief was echoed by Lisa LaGrone, a family friend and gun violence advocate, who said doctors worked desperately to save LaJuan and later heard the family ask whether security would be needed at his funeral.
The case now sits in St. Louis County Family Court, where the accused boy was formally charged April 1. Because the suspect is 13, much of the proceeding is likely to remain less visible than an adult case, and that limits what the public may learn in the near term. The filed counts cover both the fatal shooting and the wounding of the second boy, but police have not publicly described forensic findings, surveillance evidence or witness statements in detail. They also have not said who owned the gun or how the child in custody obtained it. As of Monday, no public hearing date had been identified in accessible reporting reviewed for this article. That leaves the next milestones fairly basic: a court appearance in family court, any prosecutor decision about whether to seek a transfer to adult court, and another public update from investigators on motive, evidence and the condition of the surviving victim.
For now, the clearest picture of the night comes from the contrast between what the event was supposed to be and what it became. It was a school meet, the kind of gathering where younger students watch older ones race, parents stand near the fence and coaches try to keep the evening moving. Then, in a matter of moments, the scene became a crime scene full of flashing lights, wounded children and frightened families trying to figure out what they had just seen. Daniel Williams, a board member with Breaking Generational Poverty, said adults have to reach children before arguments turn deadly. Macone, still trying to absorb her son’s death, put the loss in simpler terms when she said, “This can’t be life.” That mix of shock, grief and unfinished questions is why the case has continued to draw attention days after the shots were fired.
As of April 6, the accused 13-year-old remained in custody, LaJuan Swopes had been publicly identified as the child who died, and investigators had not announced a motive. The next public turn in the case is expected to come from juvenile court or a new police update on evidence and timeline.
Author note: Last updated April 6, 2026.