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<\/p>\nThe 10th annual Stef’An Strawder Memorial Showcase will be at Lehigh Senior High School, starting at 4 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n
The annual event showcases local youth basketball players competing on various levels in front of college coaches from throughout the country.<\/p>\n
This event is held in memory of 18-year-old Strawder — an up-and-coming basketball talent with a bright athletic future ahead of him — who was fatally shot along with 14-year-old Sean Archilles, at the Club Blu in Fort Myers in July 2016. Sixteen others were injured in the shooting.<\/p>\n
Strawder was about to begin his senior year at Lehigh Senior High School and had aspired to play Division I college basketball.<\/p>\n
The free event starts with the middle school game at 4 p.m., high school girls at 5 p.m. and high school boys at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
The shooting<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Club Blu shooting scene, 2016.<\/p>\n
The shooting at the former club off Evans Avenue happened on what was supposed to be a fun teen night. Instead, children were pushed into a maelstrom of multiple gunshots moments after they left the club when it closed.<\/p>\n
One witness said they heard about 100 shots fired.<\/p>\n
Another witness, who made a call to 911 from the scene, can be heard helping children, guiding them into a freezer, in an attempt to save their lives, as she described children laying in the parking lot, after being shot.<\/p>\n
The case dragged on for years, much of the time with few leads in the case. In December 2020 five people in connection with the shootings were arrested.<\/p>\n
Through a collaborative effort involving the FMPD, the FBI and the U.S. Marshal’s Service, arrest warrants were served in a span of just 15 minutes on Demetrius O\u2019Neal, as well as Derrick Leon Church, Tajze Akir Battle, Kierra Kashayla Russ, and Don Dontrill Loggins and all were taken into custody.<\/p>\n
In December 2025, O\u2019Neal was found guilty and sentenced to two life sentences plus 15 years on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder for his role in the Club Blu mass shooting.<\/p>\n
Of the others: Russ was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 and has appealed the sentence; Battle pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison; Loggins pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison; Church was arrested on drug charges while out on bond and is awaiting trial.<\/p>\n