This elaborate - and very new - shrine to Melvin Seals is at the corner of Morse St. & Montello Ave. NE Washington DC, in the Trinidad/Ivy City neighborhood. There were two other killings in one week just blocks from this site, but no other shrines have been erected that I could ascertain.
This is the first time I had seen McDonald's food wrappers and Mike & Ike candy boxes on a shrine. I assume they were among Mr. Seal's favorites.
While I was taking these shots, an ex-girfriend of Mr. Seal's, Trina, came by on a bicycle & taked directly to the shrine, She visits every day. She spoke to me- and to the shrine itself (as though it were alive or listening)"You're not gone."
She had tears in her eyes.
There were several sullen tough young men hanging close nearby. I wondered if they knew- or were- the killer/s.
According to the Washington Post: Metro section B2 5/6/08
"Melvin Seals, 30, was killed April 26. 2008. Police were patrolling just a block away when Seals was shot at 2:00 AM in front of a community center. He was hit 17 times. He recently had graduated from a city program that led to a position with the Department of Public Works."
Dion Johnson, my young protege from Shooting Back and Streets to Skills, has many relatives living nearby. I have been in the neighborhood often, and know a number of residents pretty well - Dion's Aunt Pat and cousin Reyna especially.
Hits home. Hard on the heart.
1 comment:
These are amazing photos and stories.
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