This year in Hamilton County, 15 juveniles have been charged with murder, more than were charged in the last four years combined. Why the increase? 'Kids Who Kill,' The Enquirer's series on juvenile violence, continues with this conversation.
Marcellus Whitehead was shot in the head and leg on June 12, 2021, in East Westwood just outside a neighborhood convenience store. His mother, Marcella Thompson, slept beside her son's bedside at Cincinnati Children's Hospital every night for months. He finally came home in November but still requires constant care. She and her mother, Ruby Lewis-Bean, spoke to us.
Enquirer reporter Sharon Coolidge: What are your days like?
Thompson: We all wake up at like 5 a.m. You have to give him his meds at 6 a.m. He still sleeps a little bit. Then we get him out of bed at about 8:30 a.m., wash him, get him dressed, brush his teeth, do his wound care. You have to clean it and put different creams on it. Then at 9 a.m. Miss Ruby, or one of us, reads to him or does physical therapy. That can last until noon. The more therapy we do the better chance he has to heal. You have to move him. We barely have time for lunch. In the afternoon, his sister or one of us play ‘balloon’ with him. We hit it to him. He gets tired real quick. Then we turn on cartoons. Miss Ruby will sing to him. Or I’ll tell him a story about him riding his bike. You are always making his medicine or his food. It’s a busy day. We barely get to sit down. We don’t have nurses because it’s so hard to get them. We do a good job of taking care of him. I’m the nurse. Bedtime is at 9 p.m. We clean him again. We’re back up another three hours for 12 a.m. meds.
You’ve moved away from East Westwood since the shooting. At the time of the shooting, you said you felt like there were two Cincinnatis, one where people cared about crime in wealthy neighborhoods and one where they didn’t. Do you still feel that way?
Thompson: I still feel like that. I got a lot of attention from media, which isn’t normal for people of my race. And I wasn’t treated unfairly. But the city is in the same place. Nothing has changed since June 12. The same thing is happening with all the kids being involved in shootings. I don’t want people to forget. I don’t know what they think the rec center they’re supposed to be building is going to do, because there is still drug dealing all over the neighborhood. Kids will see that and want the life of fast and easy money.”
What’s it like to see Marcellus like this?
Lewis-Bean: It’s hard to see him like this. But you don’t think about this for long. You think about the spunky MJ from before.
So you’re hopeful?
Thompson: His brain is still developing. He’s only 8. We’re still healing.
How to help
If you think you could provide some help to the Whitehead family, please mail donations to: Bethany House Shelter, 1841 Fairmont Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45214. Please indicate you would like to help Marcellus Whitehead and his efforts to heal.
The above conversation has been edited for clarity. Enquirer reporter Sharon Coolidge 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.
Source link
