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YSU student remembered
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Shirlene Hill, mother of Jamail Johnson, a Youngstown State University senior who was murdered a year ago Monday, is embraced during a march in her son’s memory and a plea to stop area violence.
YOUNGSTOWN
Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the murder of Jamail Johnson, a Youngstown State University senior, and dozens of supporters came out for a march in his memory and that of others who were killed in 2011.
Supporters carried banners calling for an end to area violence. Some wore buttons or shirts with Johnson’s image on the front.
In groups of two or three, they walked from the Williamson School of Business between Rayen Avenue and Wood Street to the YSU campus core. Marchers circled a tree planted in honor of Johnson and attended a short program there.
It was Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 6, 2011, when YSU students and a considerable number of nonstudents attended a party at a house on Indiana Avenue near the campus. At some point, the party erupted into chaos with gunfire, fighting and screams.
When the smoke cleared, 11 people attending that party were wounded and 25-year-old Johnson, a fraternity member and active member of the community, was dead.
Police say Johnson was gunned down while trying to usher a group of partygoers away from the gunfire and out of harm’s way.
Shirlene Hill, Johnson’s mother, has said the walk was not only a chance to remember her son, but all those who were killed in 2011. She said losing a loved one to violence is hard and should not be forgotten.
“I want peace. People should know we are not going to stand for this,” she said. “We are going to stand together and do what we have to do. This stuff has to stop.”
There was much discussion and shared memories of Johnson.
Aliesha Finney, a longtime friend of Johnson’s, said he offered her encouragement while she was in school, and she was moved watching him work with young people. Johnson tutored and mentored students at Wilson Middle School on the South Side.
“He was a good person, a good friend and a good person to lead you to where you needed to go,” she said.
Finney said watching Johnson is what made her decide to also go into schools and mentor young people.
Dan Smith, behavior- intervention specialist at Wilson Middle School and a fraternity brother of Johnson’s, said more than 100 students at the school have written letters concerning Johnson since his death. He said Johnson played a key role in the lives of some of the students at the school.
“He was really influential with our male students. He helped them both academically and socially. He helped them become young men. We just loved him,” he said.
Smith presented Johnson’s family with a proclamation from Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone.
Russell Hendrix, another close friend of Johnson’s, came from Garfield Heights near Cleveland to attend the march. “It’s sad to see he was taken from us. I hope the community can come together and do some things to stop all the violence,” he said.
Lynn Parker, whose son was a close friend of Johnson’s, remembers Johnson as a well-mannered young man who loved it when she would make macaroni and cheese.
“We are still feeling the sting of this,” she said. “He was a beautiful child, an excellent young man. We are going to miss him.”
Youngstown police responded quickly to the Feb. 6 shooting. Within days, six men — Jamelle Jackson, 18; Brandon Carter, 22; Mark Jones, 20; his brother, Columbus Jones Jr., 22; Braylon Rogers, 19; and Demetrius Wright, 19 — were in custody charged with a list of crimes connected to the shooting.
Rogers pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm in a plea agreement with prosecutors Feb. 14, 2011, but has not been sentenced.
The five defendants who have not pleaded are scheduled for another pretrial hearing Feb. 22 before Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.