Samuel Esteban Navarrete, a 16-year-old pupil hoping to graduate next year, was shot dead at an apartment complex in Fort Worth, Texas, prompting a growing memorial as homicide detectives work to establish what happened.
Police were called to the Stallion Pointe Apartments, near Everman, at about 6.30pm on Wednesday. Officers found Navarrete in the driver’s seat of a car in the 2600 block of Swale Drive, suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and no arrest had been announced. ([aol.com](https://www.aol.com/articles/man-shot-killed-south-fort-030817000.html))
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the teenager as Samuel Esteban Navarrete. Investigators have not released details of a possible motive or said whether anyone else was with him when he was killed.
Fort Worth police appeal for information
Buddy Calzada, a public information officer for the Fort Worth Police Department, said detectives were trying to determine who may have been at the scene with Navarrete.
Police are appealing for anyone with information, photographs or surveillance footage from the apartment complex to come forward.
At Everman High School, hall monitor Tanya White remembered Navarrete as a cheerful and determined pupil. She said he had moved to another programme in the district and was working towards graduating on time.
“I remember Samuel smiling, laughing all the time,” White said. “Always trying to sell snacks, wearing his earbuds and stuff. That’s how I remember Samuel smiling all the time.”
Navarrete had been planning to graduate from high school in May, according to a report on a fundraising appeal established after his death. The appeal was seeking money to help return his body to relatives in Colombia. ([aol.com](https://www.aol.com/articles/heartbreaking-loss-gofundme-teen-fatally-190936000.html))
White said she had been haunted by thoughts that she might have been able to help if she had encountered Navarrete on the day of the shooting.
“I wish that day, if I’d have stepped out my door, how I believe that if I saw Samuel, I believe I could have helped him, and I feel like my timing was wrong,” she said.
A memorial has since grown outside the Stallion Pointe Apartments, where flowers and tributes have been left in remembrance of the teenager.
“Samuel did not deserve this,” White said. “Nobody deserved this, and Samuel definitely did not deserve this.”
