Jamese Hudson.
In a crowded Dixwell church, the family of a 16-year-old girl shot to death in the face received $1,000 for her headstone and reflections like this one from a self-identified female member of a Bloods gang offshoot: “We put ourself in this situation. And now, we can’t get out … I never, ever seen so much death in my life.”
The emotional scene took place Friday night at a “Come Home” gathering in Trinity Temple Church on Dixwell Avenue. Some 250 people joined Jamese Hudson’s family and friends to talk for almost four hours about what to do about the ongoing violence that claimed another young victim six days earlier. (Read about Jamese’s homicide here. A friend was arrested and confessed to shooting her, by accident, she said, while playing with a gun.)
The event’s organizers, Revs. Scott Marks and Charles “Chuckie” Brewer, emphasized that no politicians or police were invited to the discussion: “This is not their problem. These are our neighborhoods. These are our children. We have to solve the problem.”
Three young women stepped forward to give some of the evening’s most dramatic testimony.
“My sister dragged me down here, and I actually wasn’t going to come, But the past couple of years, I’m been losing my friends,” began the first.
Her voice quivered. “I knew [Jamese] from being in the neighborhood … Over there in our neighborhood, we started something. We started a gang. And everyone consider themself a Blood. We put ourself in this situation. And now, we can’t get out. And the only way our brothers and sister is gettin’ out is by dying.
“I moved in town at the age of 10 from Rock Creek Circle,and I never, ever seen so much death in my life. And never did I ever thought, I’d have to lose my friends, let alone my girlfriends. And it’s hard. It’s hard. And for the people who don’t know, who don’t live in that area, its hard. It’s hard for us, because we don’t have nowhere else to go … We don’t have nothing else to do, because all we do everyday is rep this.”
Now in tears, the young woman made a gang sign. “And that don’t get us nowhere,” she said.
The crowd slowly clapped.
“Every funeral, we watch the same faces,and we just walk past and know the same people. A couple of years ago, we attended three funerals in one month. And these are all my brothers we have to bury, and it’s hard, cause I have two sons of my own and a daughter who’s 15 years old … So, I feel so sorry. She was a pretty, very, very, very gorgeous young lady, and that did not have to happen to her. But I just pray everyday. I say this for anyone that I lost, whether I knew them, or I didn’t know them, and I knew who did it, or who didn’t do it, justice must be served.”
The second young woman talked about her toddler and how his father walks around with his pants hanging down. “At first you stuff like that is cool, you wanna be down, you wanna be hip to it. But after a while, you get tired of it, and its not funny anymore,” she said. (Another of the evening’s speakers, Sheldon Tucker, had remarked earlier in the evening: “If young women told their boyfriends to pull their pants up, they’d pull ‘em up. Young women, you don’t know the power that you have.”)
“Jamese, that’s my little cousin,” the second of the three young women said. “She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t deserve it at all … very gorgeous, she didn’t deserve it. Honestly, Jamese helped me find myself, ‘cause I was out there, crazy, wildin’. … Enough is enough you guys.”
Right from the start, the third young woman was in tears, saying,“I never imagined having to come to something like this because of my cousin. It’s ridiculous that people are just picking up guns and shooting people for no reason. It’s so crazy, stupid to ask ‘OK, who died this week? That’s my friend. This is my friend.’ It should never be like that. You don’t know who’s going to be here today or be here tomorrow.”
Rev. Marks asked someone from the audience to come and hug the young woman; another woman did.
During the evening, Rev. Brewer asked attendes to come to the front of the church and give what they can. “We are not taking this money into any back room,” he said. “We are going to give this money, right now, in front of everyone, to the family. This money is not for the church, this is for the family.” A co-organizer counted the money three times; it totaled $1,000.
Michelle Turner Photo
Jamese Hudson’s parents with Rev. Scott Marks at a Trinity Temple gathering.
James Hudson, Jamese’s father, and her mother, Talea, thanked those in attendance for their help. James said the money will go toward a headstone for his daughter. Her mother said she doesn’t know if Jamese is “in a better place, but I know she’s taken care of.”
Her father said he urged his daughter to stay away from the streets. “She was my youngest daughter … I said, ‘Please stay away from that area. There’s nothing out there for you,’ and she thought I was being hard on her. I knew what it was like. I was out there. I made it through. And I wanted them to make it through. Sometimes I might have been tough on ‘em. They might have said, ‘I hate my father, I don’t like my father,’ but it was only because I knew what was out there.”
He said he would form a charitable organization in his daughter’s name so Jamese wouldn’t be forgotten. ’ didn’t want his daughter to be forgotten.” He also vowed to join a support group called Fathers Cry, Too.