Charles HumphreyNORFOLK
When Charles Humphrey was a freshman at Maury High School, he might have run with the wrong crowd a little bit, friends said - he didn't take school too seriously and wasn't that interested in going to college.
But by his senior year, Humphrey was the one who would step in when anyone else was starting trouble, said Jamal Giddens, who played football with Humphrey for three years. Sports, he said, had turned him around. Humphrey was captain of the football team, an All-Eastern District First Team running back and co-captain of the basketball team.
"He was getting real serious about football," said Giddens, who now plays for Liberty University. "He'd say, 'Put in a good word for me at Liberty, OK?' "
That made Sunday's news harder to accept: Humphrey, 18, was fatally shot in the Park Place neighborhood early Sunday morning. Humphrey was found dead at the intersection of 34th Street and Colonial Avenue about 1 a.m. No arrests have been made, and police are investigating the shooting.
He is the sixth football player from South Hampton Roads to be injured or killed by gunfire in the past 10 months.
"He got pointed in the right direction," said his football coach, John Quinerly. "He knew he had a life, a career ahead of him."
Friends gathered at the scene of the shooting Sunday afternoon. They put up signs and wrote with markers on a nearby tree and mailbox: "RIP Lil Charles" and "Hard 2 Live, Easy 2 Die."
At 6 feet tall and 195 pounds, Humphrey scored 10 touchdowns and led the Commodores in rushing this past season with 771 yards. He was a two-way starter for Maury, at both running back and linebacker, and was headed for St. Augustine's College, a Division II school in Raleigh, N.C., to play football this fall, Quinerly said. His death left his teammates, former teammates and the community shaken, Quinerly said.
"He was a very popular kid," Maury basketball coach Jack Baker said. "Part of that was he did what he was supposed to do. He never caused any problems."
Baker said Humphrey is the first player he has coached who has been slain in his 33 years leading the team.
In March, former Lake Taylor football standout Derrius Walton and former Salem star Kevin Whaley were shot. Walton, who was outside an Arizona nightclub, died from his injuries. Whaley, who was shot outside a Virginia Beach nightclub, survived and is recovering while on football scholarship at the University of Minnesota.
In July, former Oscar Smith standout Lonnie Andrews and former Deep Creek star Donte Newsome were both shot and killed just days apart - Newsome outside a nightclub in West Virginia and Andrews in the South Norfolk section of Chesapeake. And in September, I.C. Norcom receiver Rashawn Finney died in the hospital after being shot several times at a party in Chesapeake.
Baker said the rash of violence involving young athletes from the area has just made him more determined to reach his players.
"I don't think you can just give up on the situation, or give up on the kids. They still need you," he said. "I don't know if I can do more as a coach, but maybe I can. I don't know."
Administrators have grown concerned about gang activity at Maury after a string of fights this fall, bringing in extra security officers and once moving one of Maury's football games because of worries about gang activity.
Humphrey's death on top of the other violence that's taken place this school year is "very scary," said Maury senior Tiana Jemmott, who was standing near the makeshift memorial Sunday.
"This is the fourth person I know that's died," said Markus Nolasco, also a senior at Maury.
Humphrey "is the last person you'd think this would happen to," Jemmott said.
Humphrey was well-respected by his teammates and took his sports seriously, but he still liked to joke around, friends said. Former teammate Daniel Coleman, now a freshman at Norfolk State University, remembered a time in culinary arts class last year when he was paired with Humphrey. The two of them burned their cake, Coleman said, but served it to the class anyway and called it "rotisserie."
"Me and him just laughed about it," Coleman said. "That's why it hurt me so much. I heard, and I just dropped everything and started crying."
A memorial service is planned today at 5 p.m. at Park Place Baptist Church, Colonial Avenue and 31st Street. A candlelight vigil at the intersection of 34th Street and Colonial Avenue will follow.
Funeral arrangements aren’t complete, family members said today.
Pilot writers Matthew Bowers, Jami Frankenberry, Tom Robinson, Larry Rubama and Patrick Wilson contributed to this report.
Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com
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Just wonderin'....
Why is it always a footbal player and not, for example a tennis team member, or soccer, or baseball, or chess club president involved in these tragedies?
Surely their cultivated agression would have NOTHING to do with getting another person SO angry that they resort to violence themselves. ???
If he was, in fact, 18 years old, he was legally an adult.
A tragedy, no doubt. But talking about teaching our "children" is a bit off the mark. He was no longer a child.
Yes, he can be described as a "teen." He can be described as a high school student/athlete. But if he was 18 years old, he was fully emancipated from parental control and responsible for his own decisions and actions. He was under no type of curfew. In the eyes of the law, he was an adult. As I said, child or adult .... it was still a tragedy.
Tragedy
What a tragic situation. And what really gets me, is that someone may have been boasting about committing the crime. And I don't want to hear:
"Snitches get stiches"!(Sorry, but I just don't get that mentality!) If you know who committed the crime and don't report it, I believe you would be in violation of the law and could be held accountable. Whomever you are, you need to step up and take responsiblity.
life's lessons
Life's lessons begin at home. What are you teaching your children?
Gangs have been around since WW II
in the major cities. I grew up in NY in the 50's, and gangs were prevalent in the white, Hispanic and black communities. But it is not just the erosion of the black family culture that has caused this situation. After all, that tight knit community was also the result of exclusion from the rest of society. After civil rights legislation, the bonds started to loosen, not only within families, but also with the influence of the church.
Now add to that change, the general shift in our communities to more insular living (suburban backyards instead of urban front porches, for example), abandoning the cities, the incredible ease of anyone getting cheap weapons, and the immense profitability of drugs, and you have a general malaise where violence is an accepted behavior.
It wasn't just the welfare check, but a whole series of ingredients that has now created a more violent America.
Maury STUDENT shot
Why does the media refer to this young man as an athlete when actually he was a STUDENT at Maury. So much has been broadcast about being the Captain of the team. Let's keep in mind that he is, or should have been, a STUDENT, first and foremost who played ball as do thousands of other STUDENTS. What a shame for such a young man to be lost to a needless crime such as this. Remember, guns don't kill people, criminals do!!
This makes me feel sick
I've read these stories since arriving here in April. This absolutely sickens me to read about young people not being able to have a chance. I don't have any answers on how to even begin to fix this (but I have a thousand suggestions) but it truely is sad.
To family and loves ones this young man left behind, I will say many prayers for you. Your in my families thoughts at this terrible time.
I don't see a positive
I don't see a positive future if everyone in America has to hang on, sweatily, to their biscuit ready to pop one off every time they think they might be threatened. Everything is clean cut when someone has an illegal firearm, threatens and then gets shot by a legal gun owners. Everything falls apart when the licensed gun owner shoots someone in a dispute. I can show you sad cases where licensed gun owners shot innocent people and now the victims have to proven in the court.
I grew up listening to rap music, and I can see how damaging it could be, and has been, to the black community. I can see where the stars have sold the young grandiose visions of violence. But I have to agree with another poster, hold the parents responsible for bringing the killers into this world. Maybe then they won't breed so many unloved kids that grow up filled with hate?
You don't see the point
To the gentleman who wrote in about getting a ticket in his cul-de-sac for being parked in front of his mailbox....If you think about it, the police was driving around your neighborhood looking for people who don't live there or was there on a call...It's not being petty. They were looking for OTHER things and came across your car parked illegally. Just by the officer being in your area, a possible bad "guy" could have thought twice about his/her crime. I'm sure you also parked head on into the cul-de-sac which is why I'm sure you got the ticket, not for blocking the mailbox. Its hard enough for firetrucks to turn around, they don't need cars parked illegally to make it more difficult. Back to the subject.....Nothing good happens late at night for young people....There has to be more than meets the eye to this than what we are not being told. There is a 1 percent chance someone gets shot for NO REASON. I'm sure he had words with this person before for whatever reason.I hope this is that 1 percent. My thoughts and prayers are with the family during this time.
how many more?
It is a shame that everyone will shake their heads and say' How could this happen to a star athlete? "
Well, easy I say.
Give him the access to a club and no parental supervision.
Give him the choice to get involved with people his parents do not know.
Give his peers access to guns.
Give him a community that teaches him that being a football hero is good. ( think Michael Vick ).
Well JMHO
Gone But Not Forgotten
I was a new senior at Maury this year and didn't know anybody but Charles was one of the first people that I started a conversation with he was a real funny dude and use to always love my heels everyday it was something new and I went to school today and heard that he died man I couldn't believe it and I wore his favorite outfit today I couldnt do nothing but cry that was a close friend though and my deepest regards go out to his family My boy charles you are gone but not forgotten you are forever in my heart and for the Ignorant people on here you all can find you some other business cuz Charles was a good person and aint never did anything to anybody to deserve it but my man in a better place now Much love Charles <3 RIP Charles #24 #9 Class of 2009 we still going to hold it down for you folk
It's a shame
It is a shame that the same discipline and decisions that lead one to be an exceptional athlete are not carried off the field as well. On the field they learn to observe the opponent and respond accordingly. Make the right decisions on the field – they excel. Make the wrong decisions and they are benched. One wonders why they cannot be taught to apply similar decision making skills off the field as well.
If gun kill people, the pencils make mistakes.
Dr. Tabor
Youre comments remind me of a paper I wrote my senior year of HS about the socio-economic effects of forced racial integration, which was frowned upon
stephanie78374
stephanie78374 said, “I believe that boredom causes a lot of these kids to act violently.”
Let’s see. 100 years ago, kids had NO ELECTRICITY! No video games, no movies, no refrigerators!!! Guns were widely available back then, so why didn’t kids murder each other back then like they do now?
humphrey
Humphrey may have been an upstanding young man, but the person that killed him was not. While the police have no leads, dollars to donuts will prove it was a juvenile. What happened to the curfew? I know I see young kids out after curfew hours all the time, why aren't they being arrested? Parent's today have lost control of their kids, half the time they don't know where they are. In my day parents were in charge of the family and we also did not have access to guns. Now it seems guns are in almost every household, and easy for a kid to snatch out of the end table drawer. Call it whatever you want to, but I call it child abuse. When a parent stops being a parent then the child is ignored and that in it's self is a crime. Why aren't parents held accountable for their children? When they start arresting the parent for their child's criminal behavior we will see less crime.
cboath
I see it does not say in this story, but it has been reported that he was at a party at a local hangout called "The Cage". It was also reported they were leaving the establishment and that the shot was fired outside. Unfortunate to say the least.
Dr. Tabor
Wm D Tabor wrote, "We were warned of the crisis we face today in "The Moynihan Report" (1965)on the impending collapse of the black family, by Daniel Patrick Moyniham, the last honest Senate Liberal I know of."
"Gang violence is the result of the breakdown of the black family structure. Single teenage women do not make effective parents. It was the good intentions of the liberal elite that brought this upon us."
I don't always agree with you, but it took courage to write the politically incorrect truth above. Thank you, Dr. Tabor
SO SAD
This is so sad another young man has loss his life and for what...RIP
The real problem
The black community used to be one of the most religious, churched community in the country.....somewhere we lost that and now...............the results have been devastating. When we church our children again, then I believe a change of heart will ensue. Most young people today have never heard the stories of Joseph and the coat of many colors, Daniel and the lion's den, David and Goliath, Zaccheaus in the tree.......I'm afraid this speaks to our shame and the problems in our streets.
Wow Doc
So since black gangs have been around since the 1950's, your argument is that it's the government's fault that they've become this violent? And that's because there's no black middle class?
But I guess I can see some of your point. There was a strong black middle class in the neighborhoods until about the mid 1960's. Then with the passing of the Civil Rights Legislation, they departed. And I guess that would leave a vacuum of role models in the neighborhoods which the gang was able recruit from. So with a lack of jobs in the neighborhoods the hold of the gang would be pretty difficult to break.
What is the unemployment rate of the area where you work?