Saturday, Sep. 06, 2008

Police seeking teen's killer

17-year-old shot in chest after argument in parking lot of southeast Columbia church

Seventeen-year-old Kristian Perry had been in a gang for years, but told his family he had quit months ago, they said.

“I told him cowards are in gangs,” said Perry’s stepfather, Azzahi Hawkins.

“I said, ‘Are you a coward?’ He said, ‘No sir.’

“I said, ‘What are you gonna do?’”

Perry had told his stepfather he planned to join the Marines, but he continued to hang out with a bad crowd, family members said Friday.

The teen was fatally shot in a church parking lot Thursday in southeast Columbia, authorities said.

The 10:35 p.m. shooting occurred on Caroline Road, off Greenlawn Road near Garners Ferry Road, Columbia police Capt. Thomas Dodson said.

According to police, Perry was on a bicycle when an unidentified vehicle pulled up behind him and stopped. Perry walked up to the car, the driver stepped out and an argument began. At that time, the driver shot Perry, police said.

Perry died at the scene of a gunshot wound to the chest, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said.

No arrests had been made as of Friday night, and the suspect’s vehicle had not been located.

Hawkins said he and Perry’s mother were lying in bed, talking about paying bills, when they heard pounding on the door of their Elmtree Road apartment.

Hawkins grabbed a box cutter, but found a teenage boy wearing all blue at the door.

“The fella said, ‘Come with me; somebody shot your son,’” Hawkins said.

The boy was not frantic, Hawkins said.

Hawkins was barefoot as he ran behind the teen, who was on a bicycle, to Caroline Road.

Perry was in a fetal position in the parking lot of Trinity Presbyterian Church, said Hawkins, pointing to a blood-stained area of the pavement.

“When I touched him, he wasn’t warm to the touch. He was growing cold. He wasn’t budging, period, so I screamed.”

Hawkins said he lifted his stepson’s shirt and saw the “bullet wound right over his heart.”

Meanwhile, the teen who led him to the scene was busy looking around a trash bin, Hawkins said.

“He said, ‘I’m looking for something.’ He said Kristian had something that belonged to him.”

The teen, whom Hawkins said he had never seen before, told Hawkins he witnessed the shooting and said a car was involved, but did not offer details.

That teen is cooperating with the investigation, Dodson said.

When Hawkins left and returned with other family members, the teen was gone.

Hawkins said he last saw Perry about 10 p.m., when Perry left the apartment to ride his bicycle to a nearby pool hall.

Perry had returned to Columbia in April after attending a program for troubled youths on the coast and said he was no longer in a gang, family members said.

He was in the ninth grade last school year at A.C. Flora High but withdrew April 4 before the school year ended, Richland 1 spokeswoman Karen York said.

Perry was a “hip-hop fanatic” who loved playing basketball and boxing, Hawkins said. Hawkins cared for him like he was his own son, he said.

“We tried to love him all we could love him, basically, and guide him,” Hawkins said. “But you can’t guide a child that won’t let you. When they want the streets, what can you do?”

He added, “The only way to save Kris was to take him away from this neighborhood.”

As Perry’s brother began walking to the murder scene Thursday, he stopped and hugged a female neighbor as both broke down.

“I told him I didn’t want him to get in no trouble,” he said. “He told me he wasn’t gonna get in no trouble.”

Erica Brown, Perry’s mother, said she loved him and misses him joking around at the apartment.

“I wanted him to stay out of the streets,” she said. “But he was a fighter. ... All I can do is tell other mothers to keep their sons close, try to keep them out of the streets, and know their whereabouts. Try and keep them out of gangs.”

Reach Higgins at (803) 771-8570.

PERRY’S FAMILY

Kristian Perry is survived by his mother, 37-year-old Erica Brown; stepfather Azzahi Hawkins; his 19-year-old brother, Antavius Brown; and sisters Biannca Carr, 11, and Jallisa Carr, 15.

Funeral arrangements have not been set.