There were two murders in the city this weekend as two young men were gunned down just hours apart on the city's Southside.
The first victim was 22-year old Dalton Reneau who was killed early Sunday morning as he went to buy food for a lady friend. In the second murder, 19-year-old Charles Wallace was gunned down Sunday night in front of his Reggae Street home. At news time there were still no arrests only grief. Keith Swift reports.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Two mothers, Louise Humes and Irene Wallace, are tonight mourning the loss of their young sons who were executed in unrelated but equally brutal shootings in the city on Sunday.
Today Louise Humes cried for her 22-year-old son Dalton Reneau.
Louise Humes, Murder Victim's Mother
"A couple times he has told me he is going to die but I never really listened to him. [Sobbing] I told him I am not looking out for that. I don't know, maybe he was right. He was supposed to die so."
Those tears are shared by Irene Wallace whose son Charles, who is only 19, was killed hours later.
Irene Wallace, 2nd Murder Victim's Mother
[Sobbing] "It's very hard. It's not something a mother is supposed to go through. I am just struggling in life and I have to endure this suffering and all this pain."
The first shots were fired at about at 1:16 am right on Johnson Street near the Matron Roberts Health Clinic. Minutes later Dalton Reneau's mother Louise Humes got the news at her George Street home that her son was dead, shot four times with a 9 millimeter pistol.
Louise Humes, Dalton's Mother
"I was sleeping when a young man came and knocked on my gate telling me that they just shot my son. Me and my next son went to go see if it is true and we went. Me and two of my other daughters went and when we arrived we saw him on the ground with his bicycle next to him and blood on the street. Then we saw police and they told us we couldn't touch. We just stood crying and one of my daughters fainted. They said he was shot from back on."
The last person to see Dalton or "Pawcee" alive is his girlfriend Vanessa. She asked us not to use her last name but told us what happened in this 22 year old's last waking moments.
Vanessa, Murder Victim's Girlfriend
"We were hanging out and he said he was going home. He stood by the mouth of the alley and I told him to buy some food from 'Megan Beans' for me. He jokingly told me he would put a lot of pepper and I told him no. He then said he was just playing and rode off. Then I turned around I heard Bam! Bam! 5 shots rang off. I didn't expect it was him they had shot until I ran out and saw him on the ground dead."
Keith Swift,
"In the moments before he was killed, did he seem like someone who knew his life was in danger?"
Vanessa,
"No, nothing he looked happy and everything. He didn't look like anybody who going to die or anything like that."
And as unexpected as that murder was, about 18 hours later police were called to this Reggae Street home where a single gunshot ended the life of 19-year-old Charles Wallace. Charles was shot at point blank range in front of his house and just feet away from his mother Irene.
Irene Wallace, Charles' Mother
"One of my next son hollered and said let us get the van ready to take Charles to the hospital because he has been shot. I couldn't believe it because I had heard the loud noise but I thought it was dynamite because they are always doing that around here. I couldn't leave the house but everyone ran out of the house and saw what happened. One of my daughters came back and told me he was dead because he was shot in the head and right after that everything was just blank."
So while the murders of Charles and Dalton have no direct relation, they are connected as part of the chronic, seemingly unending violence that bedevils the city...leaving these grieving mothers as two more threads in a growing web of grief.
Dalton Reneau left behind a 6-month-old son Dylan. Reneau also left a rap sheet of 19 previous arrests for offenses ranging from attempted murder to robbery. He had convictions for robbery, theft, use of deadly means of harm, and mischievous act. Just last Tuesday Dalton Reneau had charges of dangerous harm dropped against him after prosecutors entered a "no case submission." Police are not saying if they believe his murder is related to that incident.
As for Charles Wallace, well he was supposed to start a new job today. Funeral arrangements for both Reneau and Wallace are stalled awaiting the results of post mortem examinations.