BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – According to East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore, East Baton Rouge Parish (EBR) is up 26 percent in homicides compared to this time last year. He says the parish also sees a lot of juvenile offenders and victims.

“I see juveniles committing extremely violent and dangerous crimes, including murder,” says Moore. “Their ability to get to guns and guns that are fully automatic with the machine gun conversion device scares the hell out of me and we see a lot of that”

Moore says EBR recorded 102 homicides in 2024, with 11 victims being minors. Of those homicides, law enforcement officers made 51 arrests, and 17 of those arrests were juveniles. Moore believes these high numbers are due to a lack of quality education and early childhood education as well. He says teaching children at an early age that there are consequences to their actions can help shape how they act in the future.

“A child will definitely kill you much easier and faster than an adult would because of the thought process that goes on in him. Then when you add mental health and medication to that equation, that’s when it’s all put on steroids,” says Moore. “If you stay in school, get an education, you’re far from being involved in crime — especially violent crime.”

A local non-profit organization, 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge, focuses on mentoring and opportunities for at-risk children. According to Executive Director Dadrius Lanus, they started a program, called “Not From This House,” after DA Moore noticed a high number of first-time offenders and brought it to the group’s attention. It’s just one program that 100 Black Men facilitates, helping first-time young offenders reclaim their futures.

“Not only do we get them back into their home school, we also help them get their criminal record or juvenile record expunged and we also get them counseling and we also give them guidance to get them back up to speed ”, says Lanus. .

Lanus says they also work with groups like TRUCE and Safe Hopeful Healthy to identify and address community and youth needs. Lanus says that since the start of the “Not from this house” program, they have helped 100 minors and continue to do so every day.

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