Family Photo
Tywan was at a cook-out at a friend’s house. He walked to the mini-mart on Dixwell Avenue for a cigarette. He ran into someone he knew — and ended up shot at least four times.
That’s the story Tamara Murphy has pieced together so far about how her younger brother Tywan Turner (pictured at another sister’s high school graduation) died Saturday night.
She’d been raising Murphy, who was 19, since their mother died of lung cancer five years ago.
In between working two full-time jobs, Murphy has been raising a whole household of children and siblings on her own. Some have ended up in trouble. Some have excelled at school and in sports. Tywan, she said, was on the straight path.
Police are piecing together what happened at 7:58 p.m. Saturday at the mini-mart. It was the second homicide that day, the third in three days, the fifth in eight days. All involving black victims.
Sgt. Herb Johnson said Monday police “are following up leads” on Turner’s killing. “We’re running them as we speak,” he said.
Johnson also confirmed what Tamara Murphy said: that Tywan — unlike some other people shot in this year’s spate of homicides in the African-American community — did not appear to be someone in trouble with the law.
Murphy, who’s 34, used the present tense Monday morning to refer to her younger brother, even as she scrambled to take charge of arrangements now that Tywan no longer “is.”
She spoke upon returning to her Hamden home after working the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift as a health information tech at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She has a second full-time job as a case manager working with the disabled at Marrakech.
Meanwhile, she’s raising Tywan’s younger brother as well as two of her own children, on her own.
Monday’s conversation was interrupted by a phone call from jail. One of her sons, who’s locked up, was on the line. She told him she was arranging with corrections officials for him to have a private viewing of Tywan, with whom he was close.
“You hang in there, OK?” Murphy told him. “You be strong. Stay focused. We don’t need no tickets; you’re doing good. Don’t be angry and do nothing foolish. We love you; we’re going through a transition here.”
Paul Bass Photo
After the interview Murphy (pictured) planned to work on the funeral arrangements. She was asked how she keeps her composure.
“I don’t have a choice. It’s something that has to be done,” she said. “I’m the oldest.”
That was the reason she went to probate court and became legal guardian of three younger siblings when her mom died in 2005, she said. That’s why she gets involved in her kids’ schools. Someone has to do it.
“I try. I try. I do,” Murphy said. “I try to provide structure. As young men, they need that. They think I’m hard.”
Tywan’s transition was a bit rocky after their mother died, according to Murphy. He struggled in his first year at school in Hamden after he came to live with her. He was left back in ninth grade; she got him placed in an alternative high school program, where he was still enrolled and earning honors at the time of his death, she said. He had been active in youth programs, such as LEAP.
Tywan — better known by his nicknames “Sukie” and “Frankie” — was at a cook-out Saturday night back on the block where they all grew up, by Henry and Townsend in Dixwell.
He ran into the person he knew outside the entrance to the mart. They got into an argument. The man fired at least four bullets into Tywan. Tywan fell to the ground, according to his sister; he struggled back up, staggered into the store, then collapsed on the floor.
A police officer happened to be in a parking lot at the time. The shooter escaped. Tywan was transported to the hospital, where he died.
At the time, Murphy was in Wallingford, attending her 13-year-old son James’ AAU basketball game. Her younger brother Jermaine, who’s 15 and doing well at a high school in Northford, runs track in the same league, she said. He lives with her, too. (Pictured at the bottom of the story are some of the trophies the two boys have won, along with dance trophies earned by Murphy’s 6‑year-old daughter Jada.)
A friend phoned Murphy at the ball game.
“You need to come home,” the friend said.
“What’s wrong?” Murphy asked.
“You need to come home.” The friend didn’t want to say why.
Then Jermaine’s phone started ringing. Friends told him why. They all rushed home.
And now, as usual, Murphy is picking up the pieces, trying to keep the family strong and intact.
She was asked what she wanted to tell people who read about her family’s story.
“Sometimes when tragedy happens, they say, ‘Where are the parents?’” she responded. “I’m the legal guardian. I’m their sister. I’m active in their lives. I’m active in their school. Trust me — I have exhausted resources for all of them.
“I did all I can do. Five years ago, we were burying my mother. If I didn’t step in the gaps, where would they be?”
New Haven has had 11 homicides so far in 2010; it had 13 in all of last year.
All 11 victims have been black.
Police ask anyone with information about this shooting, or other recent cases, to contact them at 203 – 946-6296.
