Hours after he watched his son’s bullet-pocked body pulled into an ambulance, grieving dad Doug Bethea demanded that city leaders follow his example and offer city kids safe ways to spend their time in the neighborhood.
All murders leave a tragic trail; it’s painful to watch any parent mourn the death of a young son. There was something especially poignant Tuesday morning about watching Doug Bethea react to the shooting death Monday afternoon of his 20-year-old son Robert Scott Bennett. In a neighborhood where teen-agers regularly get shot and a longtime youth center remains shuttered, Doug Bethea has devoted his life to working with kids and keeping them out of trouble. Since 1989 he has run the Nation Drill Team; it consumes some 20 hours a week of his volunteer time, and he estimates thousands of kids have participated in it. Last week he distributed 50 free turkeys donated by a neighborhood merchant for Dixwell families. He knows the kids wrestling with gun violence; he spoke movingly this summer at tfuneral of 13-year-old Jajuana Cole, whom he knew from the drill team.
“I will be strong enough to speak at my son’s funeral, too,” Bethea vowed Tuesday morning.
He was sitting at the dining room table of his sister Michelle’s house on Ashmun Street, one of the attractive new Monterey Homes in the area once known as the Elm Haven projects, where Bethea, who’s 37, grew up and still lives. In that first wave of reaction to tragedy, before a pause that allows the enormity of the event to seep in and pain to seep out, Bethea appeared at turns concerned about acknowledging the support of visitors and defiant about the need for New Haven to do better by its kids.
Clilck here to listen to Bethea discuss the subject.
Bethea spoke of how rec and teen centers have closed in the city, such as the Dixwell Q House and Hill Cooperative Youth. Yale has helped by opening the Rose Center. But city leaders need to step up and open doors and launch youth programs, Bethea declared. “There’s no youth center in any black community. They’s none! None… There should be a safe place in every community.”
Well-wishers who know him from his community work passed through to offer their condolences, people like Michael Morand and Reginald Solomon of Yale’s Office of New Haven and State Affairs, people like neighborhood Alderman Drew King.
“Just Gonna Say Hi”
It was the front walk of Michelle’s home on Ashmun Street that Bethea rushed to on Monday afternoon around 4:30 when he watched blood-bathed Scotty gasp unsuccessfully for the breath to survive.
Bethea had seen Scotty, the oldest of his six children and stepchildren, just 15 minutes before. He ran into Scotty a couple of blocks away, in the Monterey neighborhood. Bethea said he was in the midst of breaking up a fight between “two families” when he spotted Scotty, who was in the area visiting a friend. Bethea said he told Scotty to leave the area. “When a bunch of people get together like that, anything can happen.”
He said Scotty told him, “Dad, I’m just gonna say hi to Auntie ‘Chel.” That was Aunt Michelle on Ashmun Street.
Meanwhile, Bethea said, he took his daughter Daleesha to Dixwell mart to buy a snack.
Soon after, his cell phone rang. It was Michelle. “Scotty’s been shot,” she said.
Bethea rushed to the house. Scotty, who’d been shot in the back, lay on the ground, bleeding. He couldn’t talk. He gasped for breath.
Police were on the scene. Sgt. Anthony Duff, the district manager, who knows Bethea, pulled him aside and calmed him down. Bethea — who works as a driver for AMR, the ambulance company — rode with Scotty in the ambulance to Yale-New Haven, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said Tuesday they believe Scotty’s shooting was related to previous shootings stemming from a feud between the ‘Ville and Tribe gangs. Bethea said his son had nothing to do with the fight that occurred Monday afternoon and nothing to do with gang disputes. He said he believes his son was shot in a robbery, because his gold chain was missing and his wallet was empty when he died.
Snare Drummer
“He was a great kid, a well-respected kid,” Bethea said. “He had fights in school. If someone was robbing him, he was probably fighting this person. He was no punk. But he was no way in hell a troublemaker. He was smooth, mellow.” Scotty liked to hang out with family, eat, just chill, according to his dad.
Starting at 7 years old, Scotty played snare drum on Bethea’s drill team. He played until he was 17 and got a job. At the time of his death, Scotty worked as a stocker at Home Depot and Lowe’s, according to Bethea. His girlfriend was five months pregnant with their first child.
“For my son to go like this,” Bethea said, “it’s a terrible tragedy to me. The are few people in the community who care about kids as much as I do. I love these kids.” Dead or alive.
dougie you are ma cousin i love u 4 lettin me come back & forth 2 da drill team so i could stay out of trouble...even though i wasnt listen at first me,tav,toy,moe,quonny,christina,and us....now i see what u mean life iz 2 short 2 be fighten and killen each other 4 no reason......
just wanna say i love u big cuz.....