Ron Smith, speaking at his murdered nephew’s funeral, brought a police detective before more than 200 mourners and challenged them to come forward with information.
Smith, New Haven’s city/town clerk, spoke Thursday at the funeral of Terrence Lamarr Driffin Smith, another young New Havener shot to death on the streets.
Driffin Smith (pictured), 23, was shot at 11:25 p.m. on May 9 at 365 Shelton Ave. He died shortly afterwards at St. Raphael’s Hospital. His funeral took place at Beulah Heights First Pentecostal Church on Orchard Street.
Mourners Thursday morning heard not only heart-rending hymns, eulogies on a good life cut short, and the wailings of grief and comfort. They also heard Ron Smith deliver a passionate and stern call to end gun violence with particular focus on the perils of the “no snitching” ethic practiced, he said, by all too many African-Americans.
“I’m a man of faith,” Smith began, as several women — crying “Jesus oh Jesus why did they kill him, why did they kill my cousin?” were escorted out of the church. “But I am also an angry man today. I know God will bring forth the rats that killed my nephew. I’ve spoken to [Police Chief] Cisco [Ortiz]. But it is time that we as a community opened our mouths … If we open our mouths in praise of Jesus, why can’t we open our mouths to tell what happened to Terrence? Someone was there. Someone saw it. The African-American community must speak out. I tell you that one way or another those who go around with guns in their pockets will be punished.”
Then Smith (shown in a file photo) took the unusual step of introducing Clarence Willoughby, one of the detectives working on the murder investigation. As Willoughby stood up, Smith said, “I implore any of you who know something, go to him, tell him, speak up.”
“My brother and his wife have lost their baby boy. Look around you! Look at the person next to you? Will he be next? Will she? Will you?”
Then Smith seemed to be addressing the dozens of young people in the wide and welcoming sanctuary wearing T‑shirts emblazoned with the names of others who have died in gun violence. “The old folks here have brought us a very long way. You young men out there, now it is your turn to step up. If you know what happened, you must tell …We absolutely need to send a message to this city about carrying weapons. I’m upset, I’m hurting, I’m watching my family suffer, and there are so many of you here who are family, extended family friends, and we are all suffering. In all cases, not just in this terrible crime, If you see something, you must tell the detectives. I tell you, Enough is enough! If you’re scared, tell Detective Willoughby. It’s about bringing these little chumps to justice, and I think not only the police but the FBI should be involved in this.
“This city is our home. And no one will run us out of our home. My other nephew was murdered on the eve of the Freddie Fixer Parade one year, and my sister was also gunned down. I know someone in this room saw those runts. I beg you: Tell, tell!”
Fair Haven Heights Alderman Robert Lee, a close family friend, spoke next, pursuing the same theme but to its moral consequences: “When you have a child in your house and he’s selling drugs and has a gun or he comes home at 2 in the morning, you must tell someone! Just because he gives you a few dollars … no that means nothing. Raise your hands, if that’s your situation. It must stop.”
“This is no ‘homecoming’ to Jesus,” Lee continued. “Terrence was far too young. If a person has lived his life, then he goes home. No, Terrence was plucked. If you know who did this, if you saw something, speak up. Don’t you be the person who loses his soul by not telling.
“My own kids used to call me a snitch because I called the cops on the people who were dealing drugs on the street. But, you know, those drug dealers are gone now. To you, young men, if you know someone, tell. Don’t be scared, and you elders, don’t you be scared. Turn around to the person next to you, because they may be next if you don’t speak up.
“We need to practice some tough love in our community. The aim isn’t to put kids in jail. If they have a problem, we have boot camps, we have options, we don’t just lock ‘em up, but for God’s sake, call somebody.”
Driffin Smith’s aunt, Melissa Driffin Wiggins, said this week was to be one of joy and fulfillment for her as she is about to graduate from college. She remembered his coming to the house a few weeks before he was killed. She remembered their just talking, Terrence tall, quiet, well liked, and then he was gone. “Forgive me for saying this, but so many other cultures here, the Latinos, the Chinese, they are on the rise, they are building businesses, and we are shooting each other! We are going the wrong way. This has to stop.”
“He was a fine, well mannered boy,” said Mary Turner, Terrence’s great aunt, who worked for the state of Connecticut for many years, and came up from retirement in North Carolina to say goodbye to her great nephew. “He was quiet, and so well loved. I’m really shocked.”
In addition to his mother, Terrence leaves behind his father Frederick, a brother Frederick, Jr., one sister Cherise, nephews and nieces and a large extended family, many of whom came from far flung states to pay their respects.
By the time Driffin Smith’s mother Lavenita spoke, her words of praise and no complaint, along with her tears, seemed to be being shed not only for her son, but also on behalf of the entire African-American community of New Haven.
This is the hearse that bore Terrence Lamarr Driffin Smith to his burial place at the Evergreen Cemetery on Ella Grasso Boulevard.
Funeral Director Howard K. Hill told a reporter that the death was particularly tragic because Smith was shot in a case of mistaken identity. “The shooters,” he said, “were looking for someone else.”
His remarks could not be confirmed. None of the young people this reporter approached were willing to speak on the subject.
Reached by telephone after the service, New Haven Police Department spokesperson Bonnie Posick said: “Our records show Terrence Driffin Smith was shot at 11:25 on May 9 while he was walking in the area of 365 Shelton Ave. The gunshot was delivered by a person or persons at this point unknown. Driffin Smith was taken to Saint Raphael’s Hospital where he died shortly afterwards.”
Through Posick, chief of detectives Lieutenant Patrick Redding said the department had no information to share about the case. “It is open.”
If anyone has any information, call the police investigative services unit at 946‑6304.
Enough of the guns. Enough of the glorifying violence and "NO SNITCHING". Enough funerals. When is the community as a whole going to demand that this behavior stops? No more blaming, no more pointing fingers, no more history lessons about who hurt who in the past. ENOUGH. Find answers now in the communities before we have an Iraqi-like civil war, people killing people by the dozens over turf or drugs, every day. This is inevitable unless the gangster life style gets crushed out, never to return, because it is this lifestyle which is destroying our children, their families, and our communities. NO MORE EXCUSES.