photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Jaystyn James Curtiss appears Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, in Douglas County District Court.

On the day of a celebration of life for a murdered teen, a woman rushed home when she received a worrying text that “the whiteboys” were walking around her eastern Lawrence neighborhood. Shortly after she arrived home, she and her boyfriend were shot by one of those “boys” in her doorway, according to a recently released affidavit in the case.

The woman identified the shooter as “Rondo” and “the whiteboys” as a group of young white men who caused problems, particularly related to a dispute they had with supporters of the murdered 17-year-old, Isaiah Neal, who was shot to death two years ago by another teen.

“Rondo,” according to the partially redacted affidavit, is 20-year-old Jaystyn James Curtiss, who has been charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of criminal discharge of a firearm and one count of endangering a child in relation to the May 14 incident in the 1600 block of Haskell Avenue.

On that evening, multiple callers notified police that they had heard gunshots in the area. When officers arrived they located the woman and her boyfriend and saw that the woman had been shot in the arm and chest and the man had been shot in the leg.

The woman told police that she and her boyfriend had been talking in the doorway when two white males with their hoods up approached. Rondo, aka Curtiss, then lifted up his arm and started shooting at them without saying anything, according to the affidavit. The woman said she didn’t know why she had been shot and even whether she had specifically been the target of the shooting. Her boyfriend provided similar detail to police but said he did not know who shot him or why he was shot.

The woman told police that “numerous young children” were in the apartment when the shooting occurred.

Curtiss was arrested following a broad search involving drones, police dogs and multiple law enforcement agencies. Police located him walking in the area along with two other people, and all were taken to police headquarters for interviews.

Curtiss denied involvement in the shootings, telling detectives that he did not know either shooting victim and, according to the affidavit, “made the comment he did not hang out with black people.”

Curtiss told police that he had not been at the apartment complex where the shootings had occurred, but his stated whereabouts conflicted with video footage obtained from traffic, surveillance and doorbell cameras in the area, according to the affidavit. When confronted with the discrepancies between his alibi and the camera footage and the fact that the female shooting victim had positively identified him, Curtiss claimed that it was not him in the video footage but said one of the two individuals was someone whose name is redacted in the affidavit.

The affidavit, citing a conspiracy that was premeditated and intentional, concludes that Curtiss and the other individual waited in the area until the woman and her boyfriend “were in a compromised spot, and then shot both individuals.”

An arrest affidavit is a document prepared by police that outlines why they believed they had probable cause to arrest a person; its contents have not been proved in court.

Curtiss, currently in the Douglas County Jail on a $200,000 bond, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A trial has been scheduled for Nov. 20.