{"id":6104,"date":"2022-07-06T16:46:51","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T20:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=6104"},"modified":"2022-07-06T16:46:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T20:46:52","slug":"community-mourns-another-victim-of-drive-by-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=6104","title":{"rendered":"Community mourns another victim of drive-by shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1st Place, In-Depth Feature
<\/strong>2021-22, Division 3, News Writing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joelle Allen<\/strong>
Scriptor
Wylie E. Groves HS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Something is wrong. She isn’t moving.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s what Dionne Weathers thought as she checked the location of her daughter, Carlesa Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 26 was a busy day for the family. Carlesa toured Adrian College before her basketball game at 4:00 pm where she earned 20 points for her team. Wanting to celebrate, Carlesa asked her mom if she could drive to get food shortly after 6:00 p.m. Carlesa normally drove herself, but this time she decided to ride with friends. She was supposed to get food and return home immediately. As Weathers saw Carlesa\u2019s location, she quickly realized her daughter was far from any place she recognized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlesa had been sitting at the intersection of Ashton Road and Schoolcraft for over an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I got off work, I was sitting in the lobby, looking at her location. I noticed she was in a location that was weird. So I called my daughter, Chard\u2019e Thurmond, and I asked if she had heard from Carlesa. Chard\u2019e tried to call her because sometimes she won\u2019t answer for me, but she\u2019ll answer for her sister,\u201d Weathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Carlesa didn\u2019t answer her sister, Weathers jumped into action. She followed her phone map to her daughter\u2019s location. When she arrived, the police had already roped off the area. Navigating her way through a crowd of confused and concerned onlookers, Weathers went to the nearest officer, desperate for information as she showed people photos of her daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I approached the police area, I tried to get beyond the ropes,” Weathers said. “They wouldn’t allow me to come past, and so I asked one of the police officers where she was. I said, \u2018I\u2019m looking for my daughter, and she\u2019s in this location.\u2019 He told me to wait a minute. They had discovered two dead bodies, but still hadn\u2019t identified them. He said they would let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police had determined that this was a drive-by shooting and a case of mistaken identity, where the victims were not the intended target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Weathers waited to hear back from the officer, a couple approached her. They began by apologizing; the first time she would hear anyone apologize for the death of her daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA couple walked over to me; it was a man and a woman. They said, \u2018We\u2019re sorry. Your daughter. When we got to the car to help her friend, her friend was still alive. We helped him, but the other two were not alive.\u2019 And I can\u2019t remember from there. I was so devastated,\u201d Weathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathers was hesitant to believe them, as she was still waiting to hear back from the police. She called her oldest daughter to help make sense of the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen my mom called me, a lot of emotions went through my head because I didn\u2019t know what was going on. My mom was telling me they did something to Carlesa , and I was thinking ‘What are you talking about? I literally just talked to her’. I told my mom to stop listening to those people. They didn\u2019t know what they were talking about. I told her to wait until I got there,\u201d Thurmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Thurmond arrived she instantly began sorting things out. Going into what she calls \u201csecond mom mode\u201d, she tried to identify her missing sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey let Chard\u2019e identify her. They looked at her ID said it was Carlesa in the car. I blacked out after that. By the time her dad got to the scene, he was very very distraught. He was on the ground. People were screaming and crying,\u201d Weathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlesa Taylor was shot and killed while sitting at a red light. What was a nightmare for most had become a reality for those close to Carlesa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving confirmation that it was her, the police officers prepared for the arrival of the coroner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe police made a wall with their bodies around the car so that when the coroner was taking Carlesa out, we couldn\u2019t see her. They were blinking white, flashing lights in our eyes, so we couldn\u2019t see that they were bringing her out, but Chard\u2019e could see her shoes. And Chard\u2019e said, \u2018Ma I see her feet. She had those purple and black shoes on. Ma, that was her.\u2019 I was so sick from there. My world crashed,\u201d Weathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the family couldn\u2019t see her face, Carlesa\u2019s taste in shoes was as distinctive as any of her features. Purple and black were Carlesa\u2019s favorite colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thurmond remembered watching Carlesa get ready just hours earlier. With an age gap of eleven years between the two, Thurmond had always felt responsible for her baby sister. She relives the day, trying to find what she could\u2019ve done differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel guilty. I feel like I didn\u2019t do everything I should\u2019ve done that day. Everyone keeps telling me there was nothing I could\u2019ve done, which is true, but it feels like I didn\u2019t do my job. I wasn\u2019t expecting this to be the outcome. Never in a million years did I expect to get a call that my baby sister was killed. Her name in the same sentence with gun violence. I would\u2019ve never guessed that would be a reality for me. I just feel a whole bunch of guilt,\u201d Thurmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlesa was more than a sister. Thurmond spent her life caring for Carlesa as if she were her own daughter. Supporting Thurmond through the death of her boyfriend and best friend, Carlesa was all she had left. To Thurmond Carlesa was everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen she came out of the womb, it was always me and her. At that point, I felt like I lost my child. When I saw my mom, and how she lost her child, I felt like I lost my child too because I literally just talked to her. I lost everything that day. Nobody will ever understand. I had been through a lot already. I already lost two people before her. So when I lost her, I lost everything. At this point there is nothing more you could take from me,\u201d Thurmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instances of gun violence have become all too familiar to the family. Thurmond lost her best friend a few years earlier to gun violence, in a situation similar to her little sister\u2019s. Thurmond’s friend was in a car with someone she trusted, only to be shot and killed. Weathers also lost a best friend to a drive-by shooting. They were mistaken for someone else, just like Carlesa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy brother, he wasn\u2019t killed, but he was shot about five times. I saw how my mother dealt with getting him through that and being in the hospital for over four months. It was very traumatic for our family because no one was ever shot. I\u2019ve lost a brother as well, but he was ill, he wasn\u2019t murdered. There’s difference when someone is murdered. I had a best friend who was also murdered when Chard\u2019e was only a year old. She was killed the same way: in a car and it turned out to be a mistaken identity. That was traumatic to me, but to turn around and lose a child in that way. I don\u2019t understand. I never thought I\u2019d be a part of this club. The mothers who lost their children. Not in a million years did I think something like this would happen, especially to Carlesa. She just didn\u2019t live that type of lifestyle. That\u2019s not the way she was raised. We always lived in good neighborhoods. I always sent her to the best schools. We live in a nice area and everything, suburban areas. I just tried to put her in a very positive environment,\u201d Weathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Weathers\u2019 efforts, the dangers of gun violence still reached her family. Thurmond believes this can be credited to the growing importance of image in younger generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone wants to be big and bad. They want to seem gang-related because they think it\u2019s cool but it\u2019s really not cool when you\u2019re taking people\u2019s families away. Or your own life away for that matter. At this point, you\u2019re taking your own life away when you get caught. I grew up on the Eastside of Detroit so that\u2019s a norm for our neighborhood. It was a norm for my friends in high school to have guns. Nowadays, they\u2019re trying to make it cool. But it\u2019s not cool. In high school, my friends walked around with guns because they literally walked through neighborhoods they could get killed in. Now, most of the time, kids are trying to do this for clout and for a music video, and they think they\u2019re going to get something for an image. This generation is different. Image is everything to them. Social media is everything to them. So, that all plays a part,\u201d Thurmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This image, however, comes at a price that is paid by innocent people Thurmond added. Carlesa was the last person anyone would expect to be caught up in such an event. To many, violence and Carlesa don\u2019t even belong in the same sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was very reserved. She was always shy. That was your first impression when you met her. She was always a mama\u2019s girl. She was always right up under me as a little kid. She wouldn\u2019t stay at anyone\u2019s house, spend the night, or anything like that. She just wanted to be at home with me, or her dad, or with her sister. She didn\u2019t want to go anywhere. She wasn\u2019t good with change. So, I would call her more of a reserved type of person until she got used to you and was more comfortable with you,\u201d Weathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only place where Carlesa needed no reassurance was on the court. It was there that Carlesa felt the most comfortable. At a young age, she became obsessed with basketball. She picked up the sport when she was only four years old. During middle school, she grew into a player that was destined for greatness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first time I saw her play, she was in middle school. I knew I had to have a player like her. On the court, as a young player in 9th grade and 10th grade, she was very talented, but I don\u2019t think she knew how strong she was. Then, in tenth grade to junior year it clicked. She really wanted this and knew it was something she could pursue after high school. She became an assassin after that. She became very calculated in the way that she approached each game. That’s when I knew she was on her way to success,\u201d Jeffrey Hachigian, Carlesa\u2019s former basketball coach, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Carlesa\u2019s talent, she focused more on a future in sports medicine than playing professionally. She saw basketball as a way for her to achieve her larger goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCarlesa wanted to go to college and play basketball at the next level. She also wanted to be independent. She wanted to have her own place and a nice car. I didn’t go to her game the day she was killed, but earlier that day her mom and I were on a college tour at Adrian College. It was an outstanding visit, a beautiful bonding time for all of us. I remember it like yesterday. When I dropped her and her mom off at home, Carlesa and I talked in my vehicle. She had questions about life. I told her I loved her. I was proud of her. I told her to be a leader, not a follower, and to ask God to help her understand things. We ended with a smile and a hug,\u201d Robert Taylor, Carlesa\u2019s father, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recalled Carlesa\u2019s last day as a happy one. She was excited about preparing for her future, and her family was excited for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe became confident in herself. She knew what she wanted to do. She worked hard for it. I was proud of her for working and playing basketball and sticking with it to get scholarships to go to school. I was proud of the fact that she was graduating. I was proud of everything because she was growing up and I got to see it. I was just proud of her,\u201d Thurmond said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlesa was surrounded by love from her family and friends. They supported her in everything she did. The strongest example of this support would be the acceptance Carlesa faced after coming out as gay to her parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCarlesa came to me and told me that she was gay. I still loved her. That’s my child. We just wanted her to be respectful, put God first, and do what was right no matter what. And I saw that in her. I saw her change from not knowing who she was to knowing who she was. I guess it was something that she was fighting with, but that made her even stronger,\u201d Weathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hachigian has identified Carlesa\u2019s support system to be one of the key factors in her success and he believes that people can help her legacy live on by doing the same for girls in their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can start by giving the girls a platform, and making them feel comfortable enough to share how they\u2019re feeling. We used to have a mother\u2019s club for AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] that helped. The moms would come together and once a month they\u2019d all sit and talk about women’s issues. Whether it\u2019s self-confidence or self-motivation or determination, or just accountability and showing respect. There are just so many life skills that they learn and that they\u2019ll use in their lifetime,\u201d Hachigian said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends and family members close to Carlesa are working to provide the resources she had to girls throughout Detroit. To share her daughter\u2019s love for the sport, Weathers has created Carly Way Foundation in Carlesa\u2019s honor. Billboards have been put up to call for justice, and Carlesa\u2019s family continues to speak out against gun violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCarlesa’s legacy should be as such: a young black female teenager with a passion for God, family, basketball, and a passion to succeed no matter what. She never hurt anyone or ran in bad circles. She was a victim of senseless violence that plagues our black community,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThat bullet stopped a young black female’s future, all she would have accomplished, and tore a family’s soul and spirit inside out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View original material<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NW-11. In-Depth Feature<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Entries should concern subjects of a substantive and contemporary nature and go beyond the surface facts, give the reader detailed background information with interpretation based upon the facts and background information and often (but not necessarily) an analysis as to its meaning. It is an elaboration of the WHY. Multiple sources are necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging Criteria<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  • Lead captures attention, arouses curiosity<\/li>
  • Topic relevant to interests and\/or welfare of school or students<\/li>
  • Extensive, intensive and thorough investigation<\/li>
  • Effectively combines basics of good news and feature writing<\/li>
  • Effectively organized with smooth transitions; carefully outlined<\/li>
  • Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly<\/li>
  • Proper diction\/grammar<\/li>
  • Balanced and fair presentation<\/li>
  • Story relies on information from primary sources gathered\/interviewed directly by the journalist(s); general Internet sources and secondary media reports are used sparingly<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    1st Place, In-Depth Feature2021-22, Division 3, News Writing By Joelle AllenScriptorWylie E. Groves HS “Something is wrong. She isn’t moving.” That’s what Dionne Weathers thought as she checked the location of her daughter, Carlesa Taylor. February 26 was a busy day for the family. Carlesa toured Adrian College before her basketball game at 4:00 pm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,4],"tags":[182,22],"class_list":["post-6104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-indepthfeature","category-nw","tag-2021-22","tag-division3","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Morgan Womack","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=12"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1As","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}