Then the COVID pops its head up again and they go back to remote learning (in November 2020). And he told us, ‘I'm going to fail.’ He said, ‘Because we go back to remote learning, I'm going to fail.’ We’re like, well, we'll get through whatever, we’re a family. So it's the first week of online schooling. He tells us he's doing fine. He asked us if he can go to his girlfriend's house. And we were like, ‘Oh, yeah, sure. Let me check your grades. So we go in and check his grades and he really dropped the ball that week. He didn't do anything. No work at all. I couldn't believe it. I'm like, this is not Kris.
Now this girlfriend meant a lot to him, so we tell him we'll compromise. She can come here. But you have to sit at this table and get your work done for the week. He texted his mother and sister and said, ‘Will you take me to my girlfriend's?’
He walks down the steps with his bags and he's already out to his sister's car, putting stuff in. And we’re screaming at them, ‘If he leaves with you, he’s going to die.’ You would think she would say, ‘No, Kris, what are you doing? You're in trouble because you didn't do your schoolwork? Get in there and do your schoolwork.’ She took him from here straight into the projects.
We called the police that night. They filed charges on her – a felony for interference with custody. She's been cited three times and they just keep re-citing her. They haven't even arrested her.
He made a kid's decision. You know, he wasn't getting what he wanted, and he took the path of least resistance.
So from last November to this November, was he at school at all?
Nothing. He never went to school. The system failed us across the board. I can show you the messages: ‘If you do not remove Kristopher from that home, he's going to die.’ Our goal the whole time is to keep Kristopher alive. It’s such a simple equation.
What happened the night Kris was killed?
He was at a gas station getting some juice and apparently when he was checking out, he took his cash out, which we told him never to do. The shooter saw his money and followed him outside and he fought back, and then other guys ran up and shot him and went in his pockets.
Every time we’d get a phone call, we were worried. (Felisha) is in the bedroom and she collapses on the floor. She says, ‘Kris is dead.’
What’s terrible is knowing that Kris’ life was taken over possessions. That $300 in the ‘hood is a jackpot.
When it comes to gun violence, if somebody came in and said, OK, what's your idea for a plan, what would you lay out for them?
We need more community leaders. These kids need resources. They need examples. They don't see men, real examples of men, you know, men that take care of their children, take care of their households and work to legally provide for their families. Men that don't go to jail, men that are around to see their children grow up because they're not doing time.
These kids don't realize that these guns, they don't care. When there's a shooting, the intended victim is rarely hit. That’s the collateral damage that's around it – little kids getting caught in crossfire, you hear about it every day. And we realize that the guys that killed Kris, they have families too, you know? Kids need to be educated about guns. It's not like you just shoot in a direction and the bullet hits the person.
Talk a little bit about the fact that it seems like people with guns or been shot or even killed are celebrated.
It's street cred. You kill somebody, you get a body? And now these kids are so allured with the fast life, like the girl who was with our son, this girl now has her story. You know, she was there in a shootout. You know, her homie died, you know. She said she was right there and she held him and he looked up and said, ‘Tell my fam, I'm sorry.’ That didn't happen. I know Kris. Kris was scared and he was crying and that's what breaks my heart. He was fighting for his life when he died.
Let's do the odds. Between the two of us, we have six children. What are the odds that out of three boys, two of them have been murdered from gun violence? What are the odds on it?
Where are the community leaders? Nobody’s reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, look, this is terrible. You guys lost two sons to gun violence.’ Seventeen and 18 years old. And I begged them. I can show you the emails.
On Facebook, every shooting of a young boy, it's like, OK, it's just another shooting. So what? Onto the next one? What is going on? These young men and boys are dropping like flies and it's not a big deal. These kids, they have dresser drawers full of T-shirts – rest-in-peace T-shirts – and nobody finds that out of the ordinary. In the ‘hood, they call it ‘making it to the T-shirt.’
These are children, these are sons and brothers, and you can't make any sense of it. You can't rationalize how our youth is just disappearing.
The above conversation has been edited for clarity. Enquirer reporter Amber Hunt recorded and transcribed the interview before editing. In some cases, questions and answers have been shortened and moved to make the conversations easier to follow and to remove unnecessary asides and repetitions.
