The 10th annual Stef'An Strawder Memorial Showcase will be at Lehigh Senior High School, starting at 4 p.m. Sunday.
The annual event showcases local youth basketball players competing on various levels in front of college coaches from throughout the country.
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.
Strawder was about to begin his senior year at Lehigh Senior High School and had aspired to play Division I college basketball.
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.
The shooting
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.
One witness said they heard about 100 shots fired.
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.
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.
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’Neal, as well as Derrick Leon Church, Tajze Akir Battle, Kierra Kashayla Russ, and Don Dontrill Loggins and all were taken into custody.
In December 2025, O’Neal 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.
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.
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