When Tracey Suggs found out her nephew had died in a shooting, the first thing that flashed through her mind was her own son’s face.
Two and a half years ago, Suggs stood over her son Justus’s hospital bed, stroking his cheek. The 13-year-old, an innocent bystander, was shot in the head while riding his bike home from a carnival. He didn’t recover.
Friday, the mother’s grief came rushing back: She learned that her nephew, 17-year-old Maurice Nicholson, had been fatally shot outside a Newhallville barber shop.
“I just completely lost it,” said Tracey Suggs. “It’s like reliving my son’s death all over again.”
Tracey’s sister-in-law, Ivy Suggs, is Maurice’s mom. Tracey held her hand as she struggled to tell her story to news media at the Dixwell police substation Tuesday afternoon. The family pleaded for someone to step forward with information on the homicide. As of Tuesday, no suspect had been identified in Maurice Nicholson’s killing.
Ivy Suggs (pictured) said she knows someone knows who the killer is.
“You took my baby from me. Senseless,” she moaned, her voice barely audible through tears. Maurice was her only child.
“He wasn’t a bad kid,” she said. “He was a 17-year-old kid that would still ask his mother could he go outside. How many 17-year-old boys ask their moms could they go outside?”
The family urged the public, especially teens, to make use of the city’s new method of sending police anonymous tips by cell phone. Those who want to share a tip can send a text message to CRIMES (274637). For New Haven-related tips, the message should start with the word “TIP720”. Police also accept anonymous calls at 946‑6316.
The Newhallville neighborhood saw a flurry of gunfire last weekend, with two non-fatal shootings on Sunday afternoon, two days after Maurice’s death just eight blocks away. His death was the fifth homicide this year, and the fourth in February. Breaking the unwritten “no-snitch” law is the first step to ending a culture of violence, the family argued.
“I just hope no more families go through this,” said Tracey Suggs. “This has to stop.”
Déjà Vu
Tuesday’s gathering highlighted the toll taken on families, some of whom are suffering multiple tragedies, as more young people turn to guns to solve disputes. For three parents who shared hugs in the police conference room, the grief was a rerun of their pasts.
One of those parents was Doug Bethea (pictured), a community activist, drill team leader and street-outreach worker. He lost his 20-year-old son, Robert Scott Bennett, in a November 2006 shooting. No arrests have been made in his slaying.
Bethea considered himself an uncle to Maurice, though not by blood. He acknowledged Maurice wasn’t perfect. Maurice was arrested in November on two felony charges of robbery and larceny. He was reportedly carrying a gun when he was shot.
“We didn’t know him to be a bad kid,” insisted Bethea. “Overall, he wasn’t one of those kids who was on the police radar,” he said.
If he had a gun, it was to protect himself from a group who had been hounding him, Bethea said. “Someone had been bothering him for a year, trying to jump him, trying to fight him at times.” The fights played out on the MySpace social-networking site.
Tracey Suggs said she was close with her nephew. They talked frequently on the phone, and he’d always sign off by saying “I love you.”
“It hurts,” said Bethea. “Two years ago, I lost mine. This has got to stop.”
Bethea and Tracey Suggs are both active in outreach programs that steer at-risk kids away from the streets. They, as well as family friend and former Alderwoman Shirley Ellis-West, decried the violence they said is tearing at the fabric the African-American community.
“Let’s face it,” said Bethea. When the shooter gets caught, “he’s going to be put away for a long time, you know? So we’re losing two. Two black youths that we, as a community, have got to teach. We’ve got to stop this.”
"Maurice was arrested in November on two felony charges of robbery and larceny. Overall, he wasn't one of those kids who was on the police radar."
This seems like a contradiction in the story. What is a "police radar"?