Post by Scumhunter on Mar 1, 2016 16:51:56 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: Omaha Crime Stoppers)
Johntavious Swift told his teachers he had a bad feeling about his Florence school bus stop, his great-grandmother said Thursday.
“He felt funny,” Shirley Jones said. “He felt like something was gonna happen.”
The 16-year-old Burke High student was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon only minutes after getting off the school bus in an attack that one witness called “a perfect trap.”
On Thursday evening, more than 60 people gathered to grieve and pray near the tree where Swift lay wounded with his backpack beside him just the day before.
Jones said her son, Swift’s grandfather, was also killed by gun violence in 1993.
“The same thing happened to him,” she said.
Swift, who was the oldest of his four siblings, was outgoing, focused and family-oriented, his father, Tchalla Renfrow Sr., said Thursday.
When he first heard about the shootings, he thought about his son because it was near where Swift lives.
“I’ll miss his smile, conversations,” Renfrow said. “He called me every other day.”
Swift’s mother, Martini Swift, who was wearing a button that said “JT,” with a picture of her son wearing a Husker beanie, said her son had “a beautiful soul.”
Omaha police are still investigating the details of what happened.
As Swift started to walk home from the bus stop Wednesday afternoon, a car pulled up and the front-seat passenger got out with a gun, a witness said. She saw Swift start running, with the gunman shooting at him.
“They timed it just right,” said the woman, who has lived in the neighborhood 40 years and who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They had to have known what time (Swift) would be getting off.”
The woman said she heard two shots followed by “eight to 10 more.”
Then the shooter ran back to the car, which she described as an early ’70s model with tinted windows and black primer paint. She heard tires squeal as the car drove off.
“I saw the little boy come out through the bushes and collapse right by that tree,” the woman said, pointing.
A small memorial was at the base of the tree Thursday evening, and people lit tea candles and placed them around a card that said, “RIP JT. God’s Angel” and flowers that were already there. A bouquet of white and pink roses was placed at Swift’s front door.
Swift’s school bus heads north on Northridge Drive and stops at 36th Street and Forest Lawn Avenue, continuing north. Swift lived about a half-mile from his stop on 36th Avenue.
A student who was on the bus Wednesday said Swift usually walks down Northridge Drive to reach his house after he gets off the bus. On Wednesday, Swift cut through the grassy area between trees and bushes that is an unpaved extension of 39th Street near High Point Pool.
“He must have known someone was coming for him, because he went another way,” the student said.
Barbara Robinson told the group at the prayer walk that it’s dangerous for children to walk a long way from the bus stop to their houses.
“We need to step forward and say something about that,” she said.
One man, who identified himself as Swift’s uncle, told the group that Swift wouldn’t want any retaliation.
“We forgive these people,” he said. “He wants y’all to enjoy your life. All the young kids, get an education, put down the guns. Let’s fight this together ... because it’s our kids that are dying.”
He later led the group in a chant, shouting, “Enough is enough,” as the crowd repeated three times.
Donette Briggs, who lives across the street from the victim’s house, said Swift and her son would hang out. They recently watched a movie together.
“My son is very upset,” Briggs said. “JT was doing good. He was coming home and staying home. He was a sweet little boy who was never rude to me or anything.”
Swift had no criminal history in Nebraska county or district courts or in federal district court.
Todd Andrews, an Omaha Public Schools spokesman, said Thursday that grief counselors were made available to Burke High School students throughout the day.
Swift’s death capped an exceptionally violent Wednesday in northeast Omaha, with four total shootings.
Four other people were shot at various locations and times. Two had injuries that were not life-threatening, and the other two were listed in fair condition Thursday night.
At the end of the prayer walk, women covered Martini and Jones in prayer shawls and surrounded them, praying. Men did the same with Renfrow, touching his shoulder in support.
The family members appreciated the prayer walk.
“It shows that people care,” said Swift’s half-brother Tchalla Renfrow Jr. “There’s a lot of darkness. It’s nice to know there are some people to shine a light.”
The family has a memorial fund set up at Wells Fargo in Swift’s name.
www.omaha.com/news/crime/year-old-burke-student-who-was-killed-in-shooting-took/article_7f69c3ba-cba4-5d54-9ecd-6ee0a06001f3.html
Thoughts? This is a heartbreaking case so let's hope it's solved soon.
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