Local artist Derrick Thornton was found unresponsive on Saturday and later Lake Charles Police and Acadian Ambulance personnel dispatched to the 1500 block of O’Brien Street pronounced the 43-year-old dead. The death is being treated as a homicide, and the investigation is ongoing, according to Lake Charles Police Deputy Chief Frank Fondel.

Thornton left early and he left a lasting mark. On the surface, his work includes a mural at 1704 Broad Street and his book “The Layover,” a collection of poetry and short stories.

Local business owner Tasha Guidry says it goes a little deeper than that. She coordinated the Gulf Coast Mural Project funded by the Sierra Club that includes the mural at Broad Street. She was familiar with Thornton’s artwork, and had purchased his sketches before pairing him with local artist Shannon Denise DeJean for the project.

“They were both from North Lake Charles and had gone to high school together,” Guidry said.

The mural pays homage to Black-owned businesses that closed before the hurricanes and some of the businesses that never reopened after the 2020 hurricanes and the Malcolm X quote, “Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience and patience creates unity.”

“He really believed the community had the ability to come together, and the hope was that the project would help do that,” Guidry said.

She said the mural might have been “underestimated.”

“Little kids needed to see themselves in the art, and they needed to see two Black artists completing it. It meant something. That matters so much in the Black community and we don’t get that. We lost a treasure. He had so much to give.”

On the back cover of “The Layover,” Thornton is described as drawing his “inspiration from the world around him, and the chaos in it.”

If anyone has any information that can lead to solving this case, they are asked to call Sgt. John Russell or Sgt. Dustin Fontenot at 337-491-1311.