Jabari Scurlock

Jabari Scurlock was sixteen years old when his life ended on August 10, 2014. Public records and community memorials identify him as a Chicago youth who lived on the West 78th Street block and whose death was one of many that summer to touch families across the city. While formal obituary notices published by funeral homes or the family were not found in the public record that match the exact date of death, contemporary news trackers and memorial sites record Jabari by name, age, neighborhood and date, showing he was known locally and remembered by members of his community.

Available sources indicate Jabari lived in the Englewood/West Englewood area of Chicago and was part of the city’s large community of young people whose everyday lives, families and friendships made up the fabric of neighborhood life. Memorials and online remembrances placed by friends, family and community-oriented sites describe him as a young person who had the informal nicknames and ties common among teenagers and who mattered to people who lit online candles and left messages in his memory.

There is limited public information about Jabari’s school life, interests or other personal details in reliably published sources; where those details are available they appear in brief memorial entries rather than formal, family‑authorized obituaries. That scarcity of public personal detail does not lessen the fact of his life: he was a young person with family and a place in his neighborhood, and his death was felt by those who knew him. The public record shows that community members and violence‑prevention groups have repeatedly pointed to losses like Jabari’s when calling for more resources for youth, safer streets, and supports for families.

This remembrance honors Jabari as an individual — a sixteen‑year‑old whose family connections and presence in his neighborhood mattered. Though public records and news listings provide only limited private details, they make clear that Jabari was not a statistic but a son, a neighbor and a young person whose absence left a hole in the lives of people who remembered him. May this brief tribute reflect respect for his life and the people who mourned him.