Twenty-two-year-old Beasts of the Southern Wild actress Jonshel Alexander was shot and killed on Nov. 27 in New Orleans, La.
Alexander was killed in the 7th ward on the 1500 block of North Claiborne Avenue while sitting inside a vehicle with a man. The shooting happened around 9 p.m.
A man and Alexander were sitting inside a vehicle when they were both shot. The paramedics declared the actress dead on the scene. The man was later able to drive himself to the hospital. Alexander leaves behind a one-year-old daughter.
Police are looking for a maroon truck and a man wearing a hooded mask. Surveillance footage caught the man leaving the scene.
Alexander was just 12-years-old when she co-starred in the Academy-Award-winning film Beasts of the Southern Wild. The moving film about a man and his daughter living off the grid in Louisiana was filmed around Terrebonne Parish and Montegut.
The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
“She was like, ‘I’m going to be in this movie,'” said her mother, Shelly Alexander. “They fell in love with Jonshel.”
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Benh Zeitlin, the film’s director, cast then six-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis in the starring role because Alexander was too old for the role, but he was so impressed with her that he wrote a part for her in the film.
“We incorporated a part into the film that was very much inspired by her,” Zeitlin said. “A lot of the lines were written by her, and so much of the character grew out of who Jonshel was. Her character in the film is named Joy Strong, which always seemed like a perfect description of Jonshel. She was a really bright burning light.”
He also said that he was devastated about Alexander’s death.
“She brought life to everything,” her mother said.
Police are asking anyone with pertinent information to contact NOLA detectives or CrimeStoppers.
