Post-Homicide, DJ’s Family Demands Dignity

Divonne ​“DJ” Coward was the one his family members called for a ride when they were stranded. When someone didn’t have a way of getting home late at night, he’d promise from other end of the line, ​“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Coward would rouse his niece to wake up at 5 for early-morning runs. He could be counted on to dispense advice on vitamins to take, herbal teas to drink. He loved to stop by a neighbor’s house to argue about Donald Trump. At family gatherings he played sports with the kids, who adored him.

On Wednesday, Sept. 30, Coward was shot and killed on Exchange Street in Fair Haven. He was a 27-year-old father to a 6‑year-old son. The police haven’t yet caught the shooter.

Now Coward’s family is left mourning without closure. They gathered this past week on Canal Street to remember DJ — an ​“old soul” army veteran who showed up for his family and exuded a love of herbalism, sports, and political debate.

Vegetarian. Donald Trump fan. Military vet. Aspiring entrepreneur: He was many things, not a crime statistic, they said.

Angel Hubbard is technically Coward’s cousin, but identifies more as his sister. She worries that his death — and his life — have been met with numbness from a city that’s seen rising gun violence since the pandemic.

Over the course of 2020, shootings in New Haven have escalated, mirroring a nationwide trend during the pandemic. Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 27, 79 people were assaulted by gunfire in the city, compared with 61 people in that period the year prior, a 30 percent increase. Officials have attributed this uptick to a variety of reasons, including the financial and emotional stress brought about by the pandemic.

Hubbard, who wore a T‑shirt printed with photographs of Coward, half-smiling, and the words ​“DJ Life Mattered,” lamented that city officials haven’t reached out to the family about Coward’s death.

“The mayor hasn’t even shook my aunt’s hand to say ​‘I’m sorry for your loss’ — but you’re quick to ask for our votes?” she said. ​“New Haven hasn’t extended a condolence, an apology.”

Coward’s sister, Luquaia, is also upset by the indifference she perceives around his death. She recalled that on a Facebook Live video from the On Scene Media outlet, a handful of viewers laughed in the reactions and comments.

“How can you laugh at somebody else’s pain?” she asked. ​“How can you laugh at somebody losing a life?”

Bishop Charles H. Brewer III echoed Hubbard’s outrage. ​“I think it’s unfortunate that whenever there is a death or a murder in the Black community, that we get lumped and thrown into one category of criminals and street runners and drug dealers and murderers,” he said.

“They’re gonna just treat this like there’s another Black man out in the street that got killed,” Debra Coward, Divonne’s mother, said in a near-whisper.

“We don’t want this to be a cold case or nothing like that,” Hubbard added.

A Veteran, Herbalist, ​“Family Guy”

Coward grew up in a tight-knit family where the distinction between a sibling and a cousin, a parent and an uncle hardly mattered.

He grew up moving around the city. He was a quiet kid and a diligent student. He loved playing football, basketball, and especially wrestling. He was a devoted Patriots fan and an aspiring bodybuilder.

As a teenager, Coward enrolled in the ROTC program at Hillhouse High School. At 17, he enlisted in the army for six years, serving as a human resources specialist. His favorite part about the job, according to his mom, was the opportunity to travel across the country to states like South Carolina, Texas, and Louisiana.

After serving, DJ attended Lincoln College of New England and Gateway Community College. His family remembered, laughing, that at Gateway, he once had to sing a song in front of his class for an assignment. He chose to perform ​“Old Man River.”

Coward was curious about the world. He enjoyed researching stocks and watching documentaries. His favorite piece of scripture was Psalm 27. His most heated conversations tended to revolve around politics. He was a Donald Trump supporter who relished a good political debate — and always wanted to get in the last word.

“Who gave you that $1,200 stimulus check?” he’d say pointedly when family members criticized the president.

Most recently, Coward, who lived on West Ivy Street in Newhallville, worked in a laboratory. He had other dreams: Just a few weeks before his death, he and his cousin, Lawanda, made plans to start a dietary consulting business. DJ was going to meet with clients over Zoom to talk about how to improve their nutrition; Lawanda was going to manage the monetary side of things.

Coward’s family could vouch for his nutritional advice. He had a supplement for every ailment, they said.

“Your throat hurting? Go eat some honey and ginger,” Luquaia quoted hin saying.

“Thyroids? Take some iodine,” Hubbard supplied.

DJ urged them to take iron and vitamin D. He cared about fitness, and encouraged his family to keep active, asking if they had done pull-ups and or if they would wake up for early runs.

One of Melton’s favorite recollections of Coward was when she found herself with a serious illness recently. ​“My nephew came and doctored me up like he was a doctor. Brought me all kinds of medicines and stuff. A humidifier,” she said. ​“Everybody was trying to stay away and he came up.”

A passionate vegetarian, Coward loved fruit, especially grapes and watermelon.

Coward’s aunt, Jeanette Melton, smiled as she recalled making squash, onion, and tomatoes with him. ​“We would mix it all up and we would sit down and eat it,” she said.

DJ attended every birthday party and family gathering. He especially loved playing around with the kids in the family — wrestling, playing basketball.

“If you need medicine, he’d bring it to you,” Luquaia said of Coward. ​“If you need money for rent, he’ll let you borrow it.”

He helped raise his 6‑year-old son, Elijah. And he acted like a father to Christopher, a cousin in the family who lost his dad.

At the gathering this past Friday, the family called for anyone with information about Coward’s case to come forward to police. Hubbard said she just wants to understand why DJ was murdered. The family can’t comprehend what would lead to his death. The children are taking it particularly hard, Hubbard said. When she wears her shirt memorializing DJ, they begin to cry.

“You see how quiet Elijah is now?” said Robert. ​“That’s DJ all over again.”