Two seventeen year olds have been arrested and booked on a charge of second degree murder in connection with the killing of fifteen year old James McKenzie. McKenzie’s body was found on Saturday inside of an abandoned home in New Orleans East. Dennis Lewis and Dajuan Alridge could spend the rest of their lives in prison, if convicted of the charge.
McKenzie was reported missing by relatives on Friday. Friends and family members began a search of his neighborhood and found the body in a house at the corner of Hauck Drive and Prentiss Avenue on Saturday afternoon. They knocked on doors and passed out flyers in hopes they would find McKenzie alive, to no avail. His body was found on the floor of the house, lying under a plastic sheet. He had been stabbed to death, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office.
One of his alleged killers, Dennis Lewis, had been among a crowd that formed to watch NOPD investigators canvass the scene. A chase ensued after someone in the crowd gave information to detectives that Lewis may have somehow been involved. Alridge was arrested later in the day.
Comments
Tragic ending for a boy so young and so close to the holidays. Very well written and concise article.
Thank you, Matt. I enjoy your work as well. That is a very, very tragic end to a sad story. We have to find a way to get a hand on the crime.
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