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Flag raised in teen’s memory
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Family members of Zeboney Bess of Warren help raise the Victim’s Flag in front of the Trumbull County Sheriff ’s Office on Monday. Zeboney was 17 when she was killed by a gunshot to the head July 14 on Hamilton Street Southwest. Police have made no arrests.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Zandra Bess says she doesn’t know why anyone would want to kill her 17-year-old sister, Zeboney, because the girl was fun, talkative and “loved her friends.”
“She was not in any trouble. I don’t know why anyone would want to do anything to her,” Zandra Bess said Monday afternoon in front of the Trumbull County jail, where the Victim’s Flag was raised in Zeboney’s memory.
The girl died July 15 at St. Elizabeth Health Center from a gunshot wound to the head that she suffered one night earlier on Hamilton Street Southwest.
Zeboney lived on Kenwood Street Southwest, about a half-mile south of where she was shot.
The Victim’s Flag, purchased by the Trumbull County chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, is raised whenever someone under age 18 dies in Trumbull County as a result of violence.
The flag also went up July 19 in memory of Everett Greathouse, 15, who died July 6 in a killing spree Newton Falls police say was carried out by Robb Brazzin, 55, of Newton Falls, who later killed himself.
Police said Brazzin killed Greathouse, Greathouse’s mother and stepfather and Brazzin’s girlfriend, all the same morning.
Zandra Bess said Zeboney loved to play with her nieces and nephews, three of whom — age 5, 5 and 10 — attended the flag raising.
Monica Thompson, another of Zeboney’s three sisters, said it’s hard to imagine Zeboney is gone.
“I wish she was at summer camp and coming back,” she said. “I’m waiting for her to call and say. ‘I’m playing. I’m back.’”
Police, who have made no arrests in the case, say Zeboney could be heard arguing with someone, then a gunshot came from a car, Zeboney fell to the road and the car drove away.