A 13-year-old Louisiana boy will be honored posthumously with a national bravery award after dying while shielding his toddler sister from gunfire.
Sha’Michael Russel, 13, was killed last week at Olde Salem Village Apartments in Shreveport when he jumped on top of his 3-year-old sister as bullets erupted near the basketball court where the children were playing, according to police. He was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
“He was shielding his 3-year-old sister at the park to keep her from being hit by the bullets,” said Shreveport Police Department chaplain Jessica Haley, who is also Sha’Michael’s aunt. “He is a hero, a loving heart. He is a hero. He shielded his own sister.”
Two other children were wounded in the shooting: a 2-year-old and a 17-year-old, Shreveport police confirmed. Sha’Michael’s sister was not struck. No arrests had been made as of a week after the shooting.
The national Youth Peace & Justice Foundation announced it will present Sha’Michael with the Youth Heroism Award in recognition of his bravery. The foundation also launched a fundraiser to help the Russel family with funeral and memorial costs, with additional funds potentially providing emergency support to the two surviving victims and their families.
“Sha’Michael’s family has told us about a boy who loved his little sister and tried to protect her,” Daniel Chapin, founder and president of the foundation, said in a statement. “He was only 13 years old. He should still be here growing up with his family. We want to recognize the courage his family described and make sure people remember Sha’Michael for the life he lived and the person he was.”
The organization is offering a separate reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person responsible.
Haley, who has served as a chaplain with the Shreveport police force for decades, said she is relying on faith to help her family through the tragedy. “I’m staying strong through the help of the Lord,” she said. “The same encouragement I have to give them to tell them to pray, to keep their faith, is the same thing I have to preach to myself.”
Sha’Michael’s death marks Shreveport’s 38th confirmed homicide of 2026. Haley spoke directly to her community about the violence. “It’s another child: another child, Shreveport. Blood is on the ground. And it’s my mission, even before it hit home, that we start to pray,” she said.
The shooting occurred at the apartment complex where the children had been outside near the basketball court, a detail that has underscored the vulnerability of young people in public spaces in the Louisiana city.