Healing of a Community: part 2

Photo of Eugene Williams



"My son.. he was close to his brother. So I think he has a lot of issues. You know.. acting up in school. Me and my older daughter go to grief counseling. My other daughter seems like she ok but I don’t know what goes on in her head. She’s sixteen so she wasn’t able to go with us. They say they have to file something else. I’m seeking help for that. With my son that’s another issue. Getting intro trouble at school. He talk about he don’t care about dying. So far he hasn’t gone. He already got a bad temper. When he get mad, he get in a rage. It’s hard to calm him down. I don’t want him to get in it with anyone on the street. Somebody will shoot him. That’s my baby. He was real close to his brother. He can’t get it together in school. "

Excerpts from an interview with Kim Johnson







"When he got there on the scene. They were turning my son on his back. Actually they told me they took him away in a wagon. But it was his friend they took away. When I got on the scene I was him laying on the ground next to his car. But in front of his car. Close to the corner of 6th st. Just laying on his back.
Two people. Him and his best friend. One was airlifted. The best friend mother, she got to hold her son, she had her son in his arm. Trying to stop the blood. They had shot him in the neck, it had hit an artery. Tried to stop the blood until the ambulance came. Got him and went to the park and flew him to the hospital."




6th Street at Lincoln Ave. Richmond, CA. The corner where Eugene Williams and his best friend Miguel were both fatally shot.









"It’s hard. I have good days and bad days. You know. I cry. But I don’t do too much with that around the kids. I try to do it privately. You know. I be trying. But it’s hard. I really miss my son. He was a good person. He wasn’t a bad kid. He wasn’t into all those drive bys. He made a couple of mistakes but that’s like any other kid. But he was good. He had a good sister. He liked to laugh and joke around."

Excerpts from an interview with Kim Johnson







"Shaking too much. Nervous. Now I be paranoid thinking everybody.. that's bad when you have a baby and you can't go out. I can't live my life now. Ain't no reason to live. Can't go nowhere or do nothing. Because I don't trust nobody. I went to talk to the therapist. I was telling him that I was paranoid. He said it was something to do with depression. I don't feel depressed at all. Nervous at people. Don't trust nobody. Nobody. No friends. I don't got no friends. I don't trust nobody. So i just stay here all day."

Excerpts from an interview with Myzina, 19.