‘HATE’ IS THE ENEMY
Kin mourn young gay man found burned, shot to death
To the chants of “Justice for Deandre!” a young gay Brooklyn man who was burned and fatally shot on a remote section of Flatbush freight train tracks was mourned Friday by hundreds of family and friends.
Deandre Matthews, 19, a college student who aspired to be a social worker, was found by police Feb. 6 dead from a gunshot wound to the head after he did not return home from his job at a car wash and his family reported him missing.
Loved ones packed the Caribe Funeral Home in Flatlands and lined up to approach the closed gray casket where his body lie.
Floral arrangements that described his role in their lives stood by the casket, one spelled out DRE, another BRO and SON. A life-size cardboard cutout depicted Matthews wearing a white T-shirt with “Proud” written across a rainbow-colored background.
“Dre was the definition of a dream chaser. If you ever had the pleasure of talking with him then you knew that he always had his future planned out,” Tamika Whitson, a family friend, read from an obituary, as photos played as a montage on screens — Matthews as a child with his sister, class photos, with friends, on the subway, as an infant with his mother.
His body was spotted on a railbed off Flatbush Ave. and Avenue H by a passing train crew. He had been shot in the head and his body had been set on fire.
His mother, Danielle Matthews, reported him missing after he borrowed her car and did not return home the night before. She used an electronic tracking device to locate her charred Jeep Cherokee on Troy Ave. in Crown Heights, several miles from the body. Police have not made any arrests, and no suspects have been announced.
“To know Dre was to know he was a free spirit. He was loving and kind. Dre always knew the right words to say,” Whitson said. “Dre knew he was his mother’s prince, which was another name he enjoyed, Prince Dre.”
Matthews left work at the Buggy Service Center, a car wash near his home in Crown Heights, the day he disappeared and did not return, Jeremy Moskowitz, the company owner, said.
Although Matthews had only started working there in January, he was wellliked by his co-workers, Moskowitz said.
The young man was taking classes at Broome Community College with the hope of becoming a social worker one day, his family said.
“I am so grateful for the selfless and forgiving person you were. You taught me to always see both sides of a situation and to not hold grudges,” his sister Dajanea Gillespie said during the funeral service. “I remember how, no matter how sweet and harmless you may have seemed, you always made me feel safe.”
Although police have not established a motive in the case, the family believes that he was killed because he was gay.
“This should not have happened. Not to Deandre. Not to someone filled with so much love, and so many that love him in return. But an enemy has done this. This enemy has a four-letter name. Its name is called hate,” said the Rev. Louis Straker.
“That’s why our brother was attacked because he exhibited the power of love,” said the pastor.
Straker said that Danielle Matthews told him she wanted to get involved in activism as a result of her son’s murder.
“There ought to be a righteous anger in this room tonight. And a righteous anger that does not look to sin or to retaliate, but a righteous anger that produces a righteous response.”
“Justice for Deandre!” Straker said. “Justice for Deandre!” the mourners responded.