Remembering Nizzear

ProetryPlace Blog 62

Remembering Nizzear

    We learned about the murder when my iPhone chirped with a text from my daughter.

    Did you hear about the shooting?

    He was in Andy’s class.

    What if the shooter comes to school?

    Lock your doors!

    Little more was known then but that a boy was dead—shot once in the head, and that the boy, who had celebrated his 13th birthday the day before, lived in the apartment complex adjacent to our small subdivision. His name was Nizzear, and though he lived less than half a mile distant, we lived a world apart.

    Later reports described him as an excellent student and athlete, cheerful, well-behaved and well-liked—always smiling. The apartment complex where Nizzear lived is a failed student housing project turned low-income housing occupied by black and Hispanic families in a community where these “minorities” make up more than half the population. The police report that the complex has been increasingly troubled with criminal and gang activity. It stands in stark contrast to our long-established subdivision of small, neat homes that is, for the most part, a defacto retirement community of senior adults. The only children we see are those visiting their grandparents. Neighbors know neighbors. Neighbors help neighbors. It is a quiet place where doors are often left unlocked.

    No one witnessed the shooting, with the possible exception of the victim. No one called the police. On a tip, the police arrested a 17-year-old black boy the next day. Some days later two young adults, one male and one female were arrested and also charged with the murder. The adult male and the teenager allegedly entered the unlocked apartment at an early morning hour and shot Nizzear as he lay in bed.

    No clear motive has been established. Robbery was apparently not a motive. Speculation points to mistaken identity. A teen-age boy living nearby, perhaps a rival gang member, may have been the intended victim. One wonders how soundly he sleeps now.

    While the three alleged perpetrators remain in jail with no bail, the police continue to probe for a motive. The murder is incomprehensible and deeply disturbing. What venom infected the killers’ minds to compel them to take the life of another human? What injustice may have they suffered to warrant or even suggest such action? Were they so cavalier in their killing as to not even clearly identify their unfortunate victim? Are they so devoid of humanity that taking of another’s life is meaningless to them?

Did the boy awake, aroused

Moments before his death

To see the dark intruders

Who shot him in his bed?

Did he recognize

With drowsy eyes and mind

The dim acquaintance

Who shot him in the head?

Did he raise a helpless hand

Or flash a troubled smile

Before his final breath

His last moment on this earth?

What grim satisfaction

Did the shooter take to see

Him sprawled and silent

His joyful life consumed in sudden death?

Will we think of him evermore

The bright young man, Nizzear

We never met and did not know

Each time we lock our door?

Richard Allen Anderson     31 August 2014     http://richardandersonblogs.blogspot.com