St. Rose murder victim was about to start college, family says

One week before he was set to start business classes at Baton Rouge Community College, 18-year-old Michael McCray was shot dead in a driveway near his St. Rose home Friday night, his family said. He was St. Charles Parish's first homicide victim of 2013, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office said Saturday.

Sheriff's deputies, responding to gunfire around 10:30 p.m. outside a St. Rose house, found McCray slumped over the steering wheel of a bullet-riddled gold Toyota Camry. McCray's uncle, who helped raise him after his father died, had given him the Camry last year after McCray graduated from Destrehan High School.

"He had so many goals," said his grandmother, Bobbie McCray, who also helped raise him. "He was so full of life. They just took him."

Authorities said McCray, of 736 Mockingbird Lane, had parked his car Friday night at 644 Mockingbird. A high school friend, Leslie Reed, 19, sat beside him.

Three unidentified men, wearing black hooded sweatshirts, approached the car. One of the men fired several pistol shots at the car, authorities said. In an effort to escape, McCray put the car in reverse, but he was shot multiple times before he could flee. The three assailants ran away.

McCray was pronounced dead at St. Charles Parish Hospital in Luling.

Reed was unharmed. But after he confessed to smoking marijuana in the car, deputies booked him with possession of marijuana.

"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," said McCray's aunt, Jayna McCray. "He was really a good child. ... I had a heart transplant, and he would just be like, 'Anything you need me to do?' He'd come clean my room, vacuum my floors, and his grandmother's. He'd run errands, no problem."

McCray enjoyed cooking; his specialty was banana pudding. He also loved singing, dancing and rapping.

"He would always say, 'I know I'm not promised to be a rapper. I'm gonna keep doing school, but if this works out, I can do both,'" said Jayna McCray.

McCray drove trucks for his uncle's demolition company, McCray Services. To help pay for his college classes in business administration, he was also planning to take welding classes and work at a plant,?family members said.

"He had a lot of things he wanted to do," said his?cousin, Juaniece Smith, 23. "He had many talents."

Authorities ask anyone with information?about this homicide to call detective Jody Fahrig at 985.783.1135 or Crimestoppers?at 877.903.7867.

Source: http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/01/st_rose_murder_victim_was_driv.html

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