nothin Victims Validated | New Haven Independent

Victims Validated

Lucy Gellman Photo

Quanisha and her son, Chase, at WNHH.

The last four words Quanisha Cole heard her older sister Jajuana say were: Don’t let me die.”

Then she was rushed to hospital, where Quanisha remembers hearing her mother ask for updates until doctors delivered terrible news: Jajuana, caught in gang crossfire, had died at the age of 13. 

Quanisha, who was 11 at the time, shut down. For almost a year, she rarely spoke. She struggled with disciplinary problems in school, found herself quick to anger with her mother and siblings. She didn’t know, she said later, how she could go on.

That was 10 years ago. This week,she talked about breaking that silence and moving forward with WNHH Urban Talk Radio” host Shafiq Abdussabur, who invited her and filmmaker Chip Croft to speak about how they are remembering Jajuana in a new documentary titled Don’t Let Me Die.

The episode marked the first installment of a series of Urban Talk Radio” programs on Validating the Victims of Urban Gun Violence.” Below is a small excerpt of the conversation.

David Yaffe-Bellany Photo

How has the incident with your sister impacted you life? You were 11 at the time this happened.

QJ: It was hard. I’m still not over. I don’t really know. It was the worst feeling.

You were home [when the incident happened]. What do you remember?

QJ: I was asleep. I kept hearing gunshots. But I thought it was fireworks or something. And then I heard my mom screaming. She ran down the steps I followed her, and there were a lot of people in the hallway surrounding my sister. I kept hearing her say Don’t let me die.”

Chip, you’re a friend of the family. Talk about your experience. How did you come into contact with the family?

CC: It was haunting me, when I heard it in the news. Something about Jajuana’s spirit. It’s almost like she was telling me in my head: tell my story, tell my story. I was sitting in my office with an assistant of mine, and I told her I wanted to do something about this. She said Why don’t we just go up there?” We drove up to Dickerman Street, and we asked for [Jajuana’s mother].

Tell us about the last 10 years of your life. What has that been like?

QJ: Hell. The good parts have just begun. It was rough after my sister died. I was going crazy. I was in and out of detention for a year and a half. They were putting me on all these medications.

Were you concerned about the future of your child, and a result of that did it help you snap out of [post trauma behavior]? 

Yes. I didn’t want him to grow up and think the stuff that I was doing like fighting with my mom was okay. I had to stop. I’m getting too old now.

Do you see a big difference between the urban gun violence after care victims and the suburban aftercare victims?

CJ: Oh yeah, definitely. They are both treated quite differently. The urban gun violence is still going on more so than the suburban gun violence. It’s a difficult situation to analyze. One of the things that has come out my documentary about this is the wonderful people who help each other get through this. It was wonderful to see so many people come out to [Jajuana’s 10 year memorial party] to support her family.

To listen to the full interview, click on or download the audio above,or subscribe to WNHH’s Elm City Lowdown” podcast on Soundcloud or iTunes. 

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