Police say a 19-year-old suspect drove the gunman to Michael Anderson’s Highland Road home, while detectives continue searching for the shooter and a motive.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Baton Rouge police have arrested a 19-year-old man on a murder charge after saying he drove a shooter to and from the home of a 67-year-old man who was killed while sitting on his porch last July.
The arrest reopened public focus on the killing of Michael Anderson, a neighborhood figure relatives and friends say was simply sitting outside when he was shot near Highland Road and East Buchanan Street. Jeremiah Turner, 19, now faces a charge of principal to second-degree murder, but police say the person who fired the shot has not been arrested. That leaves the case in an in-between stage, with one suspect jailed, another still unidentified in public, and Anderson’s family still waiting to learn why he was targeted.
The killing happened at about 7:16 p.m. on July 15, 2025, in the 2400 block of Highland Road. Police said Anderson was on the porch of a residence when gunfire broke out. Officers found him wounded at the scene, and he was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. The spot was near the corner of Highland Road and East Buchanan Street, across from a convenience store that neighbors had long linked to trouble. For months after the shooting, the case sat without a named suspect. Then, on April 17, police arrested Turner. By April 20, investigators publicly said they believed Turner had driven the gunman to Anderson’s house and then picked him up after the shooting. Lt. L’Jean McKneely said detectives had gathered enough evidence to arrest Turner and were still working to build a case against the other person involved in the shooting.
Public records and local reporting show how much of the case is still unknown. In a one-page police release issued the day after the shooting, Baton Rouge police said Anderson had been killed, but the motive and suspect were unknown at that time. Later local coverage said investigators believed the attack was targeted and that the shooter fled the block on foot before being picked up. Police have not publicly named the gunman, described a clear motive or said what evidence tied Turner to the trip. They also have not publicly explained whether the shooter and Anderson knew each other. One detail that has circulated through the family remains unconfirmed by police: Asia Anderson, the victim’s daughter, said witnesses told relatives the gunman appeared to be a juvenile. Police have not repeated that description in the public statements reviewed so far, and officials have kept the focus on Turner’s arrest and the continuing hunt for the triggerman.
The case also sits inside a larger story about the Highland Road block where Anderson was killed. Friends said he was well known in the area and often looked out for children and neighbors. Aareon Clark, a family friend, said after the shooting that “you could go to him for just about anything.” The corner itself has drawn years of police attention. In January, months after Anderson’s death, a judge ordered the nearby A.M. Food Mart to close for five years after prosecutors argued the property had become a public nuisance. Court findings described hundreds of calls for service there, including 41 shootings and four homicides over five years. That ruling did not tie the store directly to Anderson’s killing, but it helped explain why his death became part of a wider argument about safety, disorder and long-running violence on that stretch of Highland Road. For relatives, the setting mattered because the shooting did not happen in isolation from the fears the block had already carried.
The next steps are clear in one way and uncertain in another. Turner is jailed on the murder-related charge, and police say their case against him rests on the claim that he transported the shooter to and from the scene. Detectives are still asking for evidence, witness accounts and any other information that could identify the gunman and strengthen the prosecution. McKneely said investigators need eyewitness testimony and other proof from people willing to come forward. Reports reviewed Wednesday did not show any public announcement of a second arrest, a public explanation of motive or a court filing that identified the shooter by name. That means the legal process is moving forward only in part. Turner’s arrest gives prosecutors a first defendant in the case, but a full account of what happened on the porch that evening will likely depend on whether police can identify the person who actually opened fire.
For Anderson’s relatives, that partial progress has brought both relief and renewed frustration. His older sister, Frances Howard, said after the arrest that the family did not want to see him “pushed under the rug.” His niece, Pamela Howard Jones, said she wanted to know who pulled the trigger and why her uncle’s life was taken while he was “sitting on a porch minding his business.” Asia Anderson voiced a similar mix of gratitude and hurt. She said she was thankful detectives had not given up, but she also said the family may never learn the reason for the killing. Her grief was grounded in the ordinary things she said her father could no longer do, from helping with a flat tire to coming over for small everyday problems. Those comments gave the case a human shape beyond the charge sheet: a grandfather-age man on his porch at dusk, a bold shooting in front of witnesses, and a family still trying to turn an arrest into answers.
As of Wednesday, Turner was the only person publicly charged in Anderson’s killing, and police were still seeking the gunman. The next milestone is whether detectives make another arrest or release a fuller account of why Anderson was shot on Highland Road.
Author note: Last updated April 22, 2026.Police say a 19-year-old suspect drove the gunman to Michael Anderson’s Highland Road home, while detectives continue searching for the shooter and a motive.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Baton Rouge police have arrested a 19-year-old man on a murder charge after saying he drove a shooter to and from the home of a 67-year-old man who was killed while sitting on his porch last July.
The arrest reopened public focus on the killing of Michael Anderson, a neighborhood figure relatives and friends say was simply sitting outside when he was shot near Highland Road and East Buchanan Street. Jeremiah Turner, 19, now faces a charge of principal to second-degree murder, but police say the person who fired the shot has not been arrested. That leaves the case in an in-between stage, with one suspect jailed, another still unidentified in public, and Anderson’s family still waiting to learn why he was targeted.
The killing happened at about 7:16 p.m. on July 15, 2025, in the 2400 block of Highland Road. Police said Anderson was on the porch of a residence when gunfire broke out. Officers found him wounded at the scene, and he was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. The spot was near the corner of Highland Road and East Buchanan Street, across from a convenience store that neighbors had long linked to trouble. For months after the shooting, the case sat without a named suspect. Then, on April 17, police arrested Turner. By April 20, investigators publicly said they believed Turner had driven the gunman to Anderson’s house and then picked him up after the shooting. Lt. L’Jean McKneely said detectives had gathered enough evidence to arrest Turner and were still working to build a case against the other person involved in the shooting.
Public records and local reporting show how much of the case is still unknown. In a one-page police release issued the day after the shooting, Baton Rouge police said Anderson had been killed, but the motive and suspect were unknown at that time. Later local coverage said investigators believed the attack was targeted and that the shooter fled the block on foot before being picked up. Police have not publicly named the gunman, described a clear motive or said what evidence tied Turner to the trip. They also have not publicly explained whether the shooter and Anderson knew each other. One detail that has circulated through the family remains unconfirmed by police: Asia Anderson, the victim’s daughter, said witnesses told relatives the gunman appeared to be a juvenile. Police have not repeated that description in the public statements reviewed so far, and officials have kept the focus on Turner’s arrest and the continuing hunt for the triggerman.
The case also sits inside a larger story about the Highland Road block where Anderson was killed. Friends said he was well known in the area and often looked out for children and neighbors. Aareon Clark, a family friend, said after the shooting that “you could go to him for just about anything.” The corner itself has drawn years of police attention. In January, months after Anderson’s death, a judge ordered the nearby A.M. Food Mart to close for five years after prosecutors argued the property had become a public nuisance. Court findings described hundreds of calls for service there, including 41 shootings and four homicides over five years. That ruling did not tie the store directly to Anderson’s killing, but it helped explain why his death became part of a wider argument about safety, disorder and long-running violence on that stretch of Highland Road. For relatives, the setting mattered because the shooting did not happen in isolation from the fears the block had already carried.
The next steps are clear in one way and uncertain in another. Turner is jailed on the murder-related charge, and police say their case against him rests on the claim that he transported the shooter to and from the scene. Detectives are still asking for evidence, witness accounts and any other information that could identify the gunman and strengthen the prosecution. McKneely said investigators need eyewitness testimony and other proof from people willing to come forward. Reports reviewed Wednesday did not show any public announcement of a second arrest, a public explanation of motive or a court filing that identified the shooter by name. That means the legal process is moving forward only in part. Turner’s arrest gives prosecutors a first defendant in the case, but a full account of what happened on the porch that evening will likely depend on whether police can identify the person who actually opened fire.
For Anderson’s relatives, that partial progress has brought both relief and renewed frustration. His older sister, Frances Howard, said after the arrest that the family did not want to see him “pushed under the rug.” His niece, Pamela Howard Jones, said she wanted to know who pulled the trigger and why her uncle’s life was taken while he was “sitting on a porch minding his business.” Asia Anderson voiced a similar mix of gratitude and hurt. She said she was thankful detectives had not given up, but she also said the family may never learn the reason for the killing. Her grief was grounded in the ordinary things she said her father could no longer do, from helping with a flat tire to coming over for small everyday problems. Those comments gave the case a human shape beyond the charge sheet: a grandfather-age man on his porch at dusk, a bold shooting in front of witnesses, and a family still trying to turn an arrest into answers.
As of Wednesday, Turner was the only person publicly charged in Anderson’s killing, and police were still seeking the gunman. The next milestone is whether detectives make another arrest or release a fuller account of why Anderson was shot on Highland Road.
Author note: Last updated April 22, 2026.