‘WE CAN’T LIVE IN FEAR’: MOTHER, SON REFLECT ON RECENT HOMICIDES
Philip Carr grew up in a neighborhood where he frequently heard gunshots coming from “just down the street.”
He knows other teenagers who can readily access guns. Last year, one of his football teammates was shot in the leg.
But when two teenagers were shot and killed at an apartment complex on Aug. 2 in southeast Newport News, it was the first time the 17-year-old had known anyone who’d been killed.
“I have friends who have been through gun violence, but I’ve never lost a friend like this before,” Philip said. “And it’s not one friend, it was two of them.”
He played football with 15-yearold Erek Wright and 18-year-old Tyree Spady. The teens were remembered by family and friends at a vigil as talented football players and generally good kids.
After he heard about the death of his friends, he said, he cried for about two days straight and met with his pastor, the Rev. Leon Aaron, to talk about his grief. Aaron invited Philip to help him craft the sign in front of The First Church of God on 20th Street.
He settled on the message, “Life has value to God. Please don’t take it away.”
He’s leaned on the faith his parents raised him with to help cope with the tragedy. He hoped the sign would remind people who resort to violence that violence can bring death and that hurts God and the loved ones left behind.
But even before the shooting, Philip was speaking out against violence. He’s joined the Silence Empowers Violence, Break the Code movement at some of their events to encourage people to speak up when they know something about a crime. He wants to help people break through the fear in the idea that, “snitches get stitches.”
There were about 50 to 60 people standing outside when police arrived at the Heritage Forest apartments after Wright and Spady were shot, according to Police Chief Steve Drew, but investigators didn’t find much information from witnesses. Drew said he believes someone saw something and hopes that people will come forward so police can work to solve the case. No one has been arrested in connection with the teens’ deaths.
“I’m raising a child who would definitely speak,” said Sue Carr, Philip’s mother. “He definitely — if he knew something or saw anything — he wouldn’t be afraid to speak.”
She said she and her husband have never witnessed something “really, really bad,” but says they’re watchful of what is happening in their neighborhood. If her husband sees something suspicious, he calls the police to report it.
“I think the community is closeknit in knowing each other, but I think that we still haven’t got to a place where we can readily report crimes,” Sue Carr said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take to break that barrier.”
She’s lived in the Southeast Community her entire life and says she doesn’t think it’s changed much, but she’s noticed a change in the Newport News Police Department. She believes the department is trying to connect with the community and to make people feel safe and empowered to speak up. But she said the additional police presence doesn’t always make people feel protected.
Sue Carr raised Philip as protected as she could, but said she’s had to come to terms with the reality that she can only do so much — that the next victim of gun violence could be her son.
“We can’t live in fear — that’s not an option, because fear is a thing that could debilitate a person,” Sue Carr said.
A week after the two teens were killed, two men were shot and killed in the middle of the afternoon at Dunn’s River Jamaican & Caribbean Restaurant.
It’s a restaurant Sue Carr said was iconic in the community — a restaurant the Carr family had been to many times before. And if the restaurant reopens, the Carr family will continue to eat there.
“We come together when we have a loss and deal with it, but then we need to keep moving so people won’t be afraid because it’s still our community at the end of the day. Everybody isn’t uprooting and moving away and we still have to function here,” Sue Carr said. “We’re not trying to get out of our community.”