GONZALES, La. The boy was 17 years old. He loved video games. He loved anime. His favorite color was green. Give him parts and he could build just about anything.

He had just been picked for the National Youth Leadership Forum on Engineering. That is a big deal for a high school kid.

His mom had a stroke four months ago. After that, he started talking about work. He talked about a job. He talked about a career. He wanted to help take care of her.

His dad thought he was carrying too much.

"He was talking to me about goals in life, working and the career and stuff and taking care of his mom and trying to help," his father, David, said. "And I told him to live your life, son."

He never got the chance.

On Friday, Aug. 21, just after 4 p.m., Gonzales police got a call about gunfire. The call came from a house on East Caldwell Street. Officers found two people shot. Both were dead at the scene.

One was the 17-year-old. The other was Jared Downey, 21.

Police say drugs were part of it. They have not said much more than that.

Gonzales is a small city in Ascension Parish. It sits between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Two dead in one house is not a normal week there.

Witnesses saw a black BMW leave right after the shots. Video cameras caught it too. Police say that car led them to the people they wanted.

By early Saturday they had one in jail. Joseph Appiah, 17, of Prairieville. He was booked into the Ascension Parish Jail. That is the adult jail, not a juvenile home.

The list of charges is long. Two counts of first-degree murder. Eight counts of aggravated assault with a gun. That means pointing a gun at people and scaring them. One count of firing a gun inside city limits. One count of having drugs to sell. One count of criminal conspiracy, which means planning a crime with other people. And one count of being a principal, which means helping make a crime happen.

In Louisiana, first-degree murder carries life in prison. Appiah has not gone to trial. He is accused, not guilty.

Police kept working. They said two more people were in it. Both are juveniles. Police will not give their names because of their ages. Officers arrested both a short time later.

Those two are booked on conspiracy counts. Each is also booked as a principal to first-degree murder, twice. And on armed robbery counts.

That is three young people locked up. Two young people gone.

"This is a senseless loss of two young lives, and the tragedy extends far beyond the two victims," Police Chief Sherman Jackson said. "Young people are now facing life-altering consequences because of bad decisions, drugs and violence. In a matter of moments, lives were lost, futures were shattered, and multiple families were forever changed."

His sister, Taryn, keeps going back to the same talks. Her brother wanted to hold the family up. She kept telling him he was still a kid.

"We had plenty of conversations about how much responsibility he was taking on," Taryn said. "And I said, You're a kid. Like you're not supposed to feel this type of responsibility."

His best friend was Logan Wilson. He does not want people to file his friend away as a crime story.

"He was my soul. He was everything that I ever asked for. He was more than that. He was a very loving person," Wilson said. "He was a very gentle person, and he was a very smart person, very intellectual."

Wilson said the case matters. But he said his friend is more than the case.

"Although this crime deserves awareness, I don't want my best friend to be remembered as a victim," Wilson said. "Remember his kind, peaceful, and gentle spirit. Hug your mom, hug your dad, and feel the love he brought into this world."

The family has set up an online fund to help with what comes next.

The case now moves to the Ascension Parish courts. Police say they are still working it.

A charge is not proof. Everyone is innocent until a court says otherwise.