Posted on 01/03/2015 5:21:14 PM PST by digger48
HAMMOND | A mother grieved as her second son was gunned down in less than a month, this time an engineering student at Vincennes University who was home on winter break.
Hammond authorities are investigating the shooting death of 19-year-old Donnovan Williams, a Highland resident who had been the first in his family to go to college but ended up the first victim of homicide in Northwest Indiana this year.
Early on New Year's Day, Williams was shot at 1235 Wilson Place in Hammond, and later died at Community Hospital in Munster.
The recent graduate of Morton High School in Hammond had been at a house party where two other college students, one a fellow Vincennes University student, were wounded by gunfire, aunt Andrea Wright said. One is still in the hospital, and the other has been released, she said.
"He's a young kid, a good kid who's never been in trouble," Wright said. "He was trying to get his life started. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, at a party he shouldn't have gone to."
Hammond police did not release any additional information about the homicide. Lt. Richard Hoyda said detectives may be hesitant to provide the public with more details because of safety concerns.
Williams just mourned the loss of his older brother, Hammond resident Dominique D. Wright, 25, who was fatally shot multiple times on Interstate 80/94 near Cline Avenue on Dec. 4.
Police said Wright was exchanging gunfire on the highway with East Chicago resident Terrill K. Fenderson, 37, who was found dead from gunshot wounds the next morning in a Hammond alley. According to court records, Wright had been involved in another 2012 shooting on I-80/94 that stemmed from a feud between residents in East Chicago's Harbor and Calumet neighborhoods.
Wright was a machinist at a Hammond factory who had just welcomed a child into the world eight months earlier and was attending Ivy Tech classes online to try to better himself, Andrea Wright said. She said she believed Williams' death was unrelated.
"He was home from college and just got caught up in a horrible incident," she said. "His mother has lost two sons. They just buried Dominique, and he was home on break trying to console her."
Mother Melissa Williams, a Highland resident, is distraught after losing both her sons, one right after the other, Wright said. She also has a daughter.
Williams had been a bright kid and good student who was quick to smile and had a lot of friends, Wright said. He enjoyed playing basketball with his brother and worked at hhgregg in Merrillville during his high school years. His family was extremely proud he went off to college and hoped he could escape the area, she said.
"He was a loving, supportive young man with a bright future ahead of him," she said. "He was warm, funny, and affectionate. He loved to give hugs. College had always been a goal for him. He was just trying to get his life started."
The family just had to bury Wright and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help with Williams' funeral expenses.
To donate, visit gofundme.com/dwilliams.
I am so sorry to read of her tragic loss.
I join her and the black community in calling for an end to this senseless black-on-black violence.
More likely, he was hanging out with old friends who he should not have been hanging out with. It's a shame.
So sad. Praying for comfort for his mom.
That sucks. Looks like a good smart kid. Sigh.
Prayers for the family. And a curse upon the shooter (sorry, not Christian of me to go there, but just can’t help it).
Every community in the United States with a majority Black population ought to have huge billboards posted with the left’s new catch phrase of “Black lives matter” written on them. They need to heed the message far more than our nation’s police forces do. It’s tiring to keep mentioning over and over how Blacks are killing each other far more often than they are being slain by police but of course that would be racist. The older brother deserves no sympathy. If he’s trying to get his life in order why the hell is he then involved in a gun battle on the highway? The younger brother and the grieving mother who has lost two sons in a month are the tragedies we should be mourning. All of this the end result of the real issue that dwarfs the events in Ferugson, MO and in NYC. Don’t count on the nation’s media and the civil rights/race hustler community to mention this double tragedy in Hammond, Indiana.
Didn't read the piece thoroughly...is there credible evidence to suggest that this kid was anything other than decent...or are you just assuming?
I hope you understand that not all black victims of crime are in some way responsible for their fate.In fact,I'd bet that not even a majority are.
DeBlasio told his kid to fear the cops. Wonder who these folks were taught to fear?
Yes. You know, we all tend to think that if a kid is taking college classes, they're "good kids" who are "on their way." But the fact is, there's a very brisk drug trade on most college campuses, and one can be taking classes in college and still be up to no good. Now, that photo shows a young man with a very pleasant face and he doesn't look like a thug, so I don't know. But his brother died in a shoot out and he was at a party where people were shooting, and it just seems like the presence of college classes isn't so much of an indicator of a straight & narrow life as people think.
And as for him being "an engineering student," (as the story says,) he was a freshman. He may have expressed an interest in engineering, but I hate when they make a kid who just started college sound like he's finishing up his Master's and already interning for some Chicago contractor.
This happened 2 days ago, and it’s just now trickling out to the local media. I had to look at 4 small articles before I could find a picture of the kid.
I’m sure MSNBC and CNN are working up the story right now. /s
you may be convinced by one picture of a kid sitting in a car.
good kids don’t go to parties where other kids have guns and can wind up dead. that’s not the kind of party a good kid goes to. i will admit you and i may have different standards on this and may differ.
True enough...but are we certain that he *knew* that attendees had guns?
He does look like a nice young man. Very sorry to hear about this. It’s also nice to read his aunt said he was “getting his life started” instead of “turned around.” But he sure had a scumbag brother, so you have to wonder how good he really was.
think back when you were tht age going to parties. you pretty much knew ho you hung out with, and the kinds of people that would be at a party you would be going to.
further the kinds of kids who would possibly have such things, you would not tangle with in the first place if you had half a brain, or would leave the party once you saw they were there, just to avoid trouble.
not rocket science. i was a teen and so were you, you know how things were in high school.
apparently not that smart.
Amen
In a society with moral clarity he would. More likely, "snitches get stitches" will get in the way of solving the murder and if the perpetrator is captured and tried the jury will say, "I ain't puttin' another brother in prison. We got too many now!" And the perpetrator will walk.
And tomorrow the perp will kill the child of a juror.
Are these people crazy?
Black lives matter? Not to other blacks.
Accepted or traditional spellings of the Gaelic name DONOVAN:
Denovan
Danavan
Donevan
Donavon
Doniphan
Donivan
Donivin
Donovan
Donnavan
**Donnovan**
Donnovon
Dunnavan
Let’s try this for another Gaelic name, this time a woman’s:
SIOBHAN
Alternate spellings:
Chevonne
Shavawn
Shavonne
Shevon
Shevonne
Shevaun
Shivonne
I’m not saying that a lot of American blacks do not give their children ridiculous made-up names, but there are a lot of spelling variations for authentic names.
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