I spent a current weekend in Portsmouth, N.H., a tastefully settled neighborhood safe in its historic and culinary attract alongside the New England seacoast, however a neighborhood deeply wounded by the dying of a schoolchild, not, instantly, from the mass slaughter in a Texas college earlier in Might, however the random and wanton homicide of considered one of their very own, an 8-year-old third-grader who was merely using in a automobile along with his household.
My son and his spouse and their three school-age kids reside in that neighborhood.
On Might 28, Quarius Naqua Dunham, who attended Little Harbour Elementary Faculty in Portsmouth with two of my grandchildren, was touring along with his household to a commencement ceremony in South Carolina, when he was struck at the back of the neck by a bullet from the gun of a person firing at vehicles passing by his residence. Quarius died the following day. His father, who was driving, was shot within the leg, and is recovering.
The alleged assailant, Charles Montgomery Allen, 40, of Florence, S.C., was arrested and charged with one depend of homicide, 9 counts of tried homicide, discharging a firearm into an occupied automobile, and possession of a weapon in the course of the fee of a violent crime.
At his bond listening to on June 1, Allen reportedly instructed the decide he, the truth is, was a sufferer.
“‘Can I say that I’ve been a sufferer right here nicely over two years?’” he instructed the decide, in accordance with a South Carolina information report. ‘Each system I’ve has been hacked. Each system, my cell telephones. My TV. I can’t even get a sign at my residence to observe TV. Like there’s some type of jammer within the space. I’ve been a complete sufferer for nicely over two years. And I mentioned time and again and over I didn’t need anybody to get harm. This isn’t the primary. The primary time I went and stole some stuff from the shop. Simply to see if there was nonetheless legislation and order.’”
Lunacy within the flesh, seemingly zonked on meth, armed with a gun alongside a rural street taking pot pictures at ghosts, demons and innocents driving by.
Weapons.
Weapons within the arms of nuts.
Gun nuts.
My granddaughter, Leia, a fifth-grader and member of the Little Harbour “security patrol,” bought to know Quarius as she welcomed youngsters off the buses and into college each day and helped hold issues transferring within the corridors, the place she would recurrently alternate high-fives with him.
My grandson, Miles, a grade behind Quarius, knew him largely by fame — he was a number one basketball participant at age 8, aggressive and good, and as Miles instructed me, “actually quick.”
Who really is aware of how kids course of any, by no means thoughts all, of this ceaseless shock and grief?
Leia, per week after she realized the destiny of Quarius, instructed me throughout my go to a few memorial tree that was created outdoors the varsity entrance, adorned with images of him, his household, his buddies. Flowers and candles are there as nicely.
I didn’t push her to say extra. Her dad and mom, Sam and Jen, instructed me how emotional she was upon listening to the information and the way she sought aid by retreating to her room and writing.
The Portsmouth neighborhood has rallied. A GoFundMe website was created with a objective of $200,000 to assist the household, as the daddy, Matthew, recovers and Quarius’ mom, Tecali, prepares to provide beginning in September. By week’s finish, greater than $170,000 had been raised.
The weekend I used to be there, a city-wide gathering was assembled downtown by the Memorial Bridge on Saturday night, with everybody urged to put on orange and to hold or put on no matter they selected, calling for the top of the gun violence. Some 300 turned out.
Different memorials had been deliberate, however as my son, Sam, and I watched my eldest grandchild, Anneke, 13, play softball with seventh- and eighth-grade women on a Saturday morning, he mentioned there’s a pall over the neighborhood. It was there throughout Miles’ baseball sport early Saturday morning and Leia’s lacrosse match, later that morning.
Sports activities are a significant a part of my grandchildren’s lives, as they had been for Quarius.
I quote from the GoFundMe website, an attraction written by a Portsmouth mum or dad and talking for the Portsmouth neighborhood, notably its kids:
“This candy little one touched each individual he met along with his vibrant smile, infectious snicker, snappy sneakers, and bold goals. He was identified round college because the quickest runner, one of the best kickball participant, very good soccer guru, and a ‘god’ at basketball. He dreamed of someday taking part in within the NBA, and other people round him actually believed this might occur. He all the time greeted individuals with a hug, and lit up each room he was in. One of many superb issues about his spirit is that he actually made each child he was round assume they had been his greatest buddy.”
And now he’s gone, for no sane motive, for merely being along with his household on a cheerful event and by no means figuring out he was to grow to be one other headline written by weapons.
Steven Slosberg lives in Stonington and could also be reached at maayan72@aol.com.