De'Juan Graham wanted to be a football player when he grew up
By Jim Schoettler, The Times-Union
Mallory Goodman and her mother had just sat down in church for Bible study Wednesday night when Goodman grabbed her vibrating cell phone and glanced at the screen.
"Call me," said a text message from her cousin. "Your brother got shot."
An hour later, Goodman learned her 15-year-old brother, De'Juan Graham, had died at Shands Jacksonville hospital.
"He's gone," Goodman's mother, Mary Goodman, told her outside the hospital's trauma unit. Mallory Goodman collapsed in grief.
No arrests were reported Thursday in the slaying, which occurred after De'Juan and some friends went to play basketball in Panama Park off Buffalo Avenue. He was gunned down about 7 p.m. in a parking lot near the courts by a man who got out of a car and opened fire, scattering the group.
The motive is unknown.
Nearly 24 hours later, a group of women including Goodman, 19, and a younger sister returned to the paved lot and used bleach to scrub away a trail of *lo** stains. They hugged, they sobbed and they asked why.
"God took him away from me," screamed one of the women.
De'Juan loved to laugh, hang out with friends and aspired to be a football player one day, Goodman said. He was a ninth-grader at Grand Park Center, where he was correcting some behavioral problems, said his aunt, Yolanda Clark. Goodman said her brother was not a troublemaker.
"My brother didn't bother nobody, so I don't understand why he got shot," she said. "He didn't deserve to die like that."
Goodman said her favorite memory of her brother will be his beautiful ear to ear smile.
"He was happy. He laughed at everything," she said.
Mallory Goodman and her mother had just sat down in church for Bible study Wednesday night when Goodman grabbed her vibrating cell phone and glanced at the screen.
"Call me," said a text message from her cousin. "Your brother got shot."
An hour later, Goodman learned her 15-year-old brother, De'Juan Graham, had died at Shands Jacksonville hospital.
"He's gone," Goodman's mother, Mary Goodman, told her outside the hospital's trauma unit. Mallory Goodman collapsed in grief.
No arrests were reported Thursday in the slaying, which occurred after De'Juan and some friends went to play basketball in Panama Park off Buffalo Avenue. He was gunned down about 7 p.m. in a parking lot near the courts by a man who got out of a car and opened fire, scattering the group.
The motive is unknown.
Nearly 24 hours later, a group of women including Goodman, 19, and a younger sister returned to the paved lot and used bleach to scrub away a trail of *lo** stains. They hugged, they sobbed and they asked why.
"God took him away from me," screamed one of the women.
De'Juan loved to laugh, hang out with friends and aspired to be a football player one day, Goodman said. He was a ninth-grader at Grand Park Center, where he was correcting some behavioral problems, said his aunt, Yolanda Clark. Goodman said her brother was not a troublemaker.
"My brother didn't bother nobody, so I don't understand why he got shot," she said. "He didn't deserve to die like that."
Goodman said her favorite memory of her brother will be his beautiful ear to ear smile.
"He was happy. He laughed at everything," she said.
De'Juan is the city's 38th homicide this year.