"He was a good kid. He did not deserve nothing like this," says his brother, Dujuan Hayes.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Dujuan Hayes had intended to pick up his younger brother Dennis, a 16-year-old Mount Pleasant High School student, and take him Friday from the tough and sometimes violent atmosphere at Chad Brown housing complex.
"My mother and I talked about it. Things were getting bad at the projects . . . I was going to take him [Dennis] over to live with me" in the West End, said Dujuan.
But instead, Dujuan Hayes found himself sitting in a rescue vehicle early Friday watching Dennis -- mortally wounded by gunfire -- pass from this world.
Police do not know who shot Dennis through the chest as he walked up
the stairs of his girlfriend's house at 1 a.m. Friday. Detectives had
no suspects in custody yesterday, a police spokesman said.
Dennis was the 20th homicide victim in the city this year. His death
comes on the heels of a string of recent shootings in the neighborhood.
"I miss him. I close my eyes. I see him," said Dujuan as he stood with friends yesterday in a Chad Brown parking lot.
"He was a good kid. He did not deserve nothing like this. He didn't get into any of the trouble," said Dujuan. "This is messed up."
Dujuan said of Dennis, "He liked playing football and basketball. He wanted to live life peacefully. He didn't have problems . . . . My brother never came and told me he was having problems."
A police report of the incident said the police were dispatched to 84 Salina St. at about 12:51 a.m. for a report of a shooting.
Dennis' 23-year-old sister, Nika, said yesterday that she and Dennis had been at home on Filmore Street at Chad Brown, eating and watching a movie, when Dennis received a call from his girlfriend and left for the girlfriend's house on Salina Street.
"Then I got a phone call that he got shot," said Nika.
Nika said she ran to the scene and stayed with her brother until emergency medical technicians closed the rescue doors.
"They ripped his shirt open," said Nika, and it was evident to her that a bullet had penetrated her brother's chest.
"He was saying, 'It hurts, it hurts.' I told him, 'I'm not going anywhere.' He was gripping my hand tight," but then his grip loosened and his hand fell away "and his voice got weaker," she said.
Teny Gross, director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Non-Violence in Providence, said yesterday, "It's very hard. It's very painful. We're working towards the day when it's not going to be normal to lose a young person to violence."
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