Joseph Goodman: Pain carries on long after young people die

There are no correct words when a young person dies.

There are no right answers.

There are no things or drugs or thoughts that will bring comfort or peace.

Young people who die tragically do not die because it’s their time, or because it was God’s plan, or because it was meant to be. Jamea Harris of Birmingham was taken from this world by gun violence on Sunday morning in Tuscaloosa, and now her child will grow up without a mother, and Harris’ family will linger on, being chased always by grief.

And for what? Because someone was disrespected? The deaths of young people are difficult to discuss, but ignoring the effects of gun violence isn’t an option for those whose lives are scattered into pieces after loved ones die.

Harris was 23 years old, and the two people charged with capital murder for her death are 21-year-old Darius Miles and 20-year-old Michael Davis. I know only what everyone else already understands. An epidemic of gun violence continues to rob us of our young, and fill us with nightmares.

Unfortunately, I know the place of unfathomable hell where the Harris family now shudders in cold fear and cries out in anguish. On this day, January 17, 2023, my first-born son should be 27 years old. He is no longer with us. He loved cinnamon rolls and hiking, so I’ll eat cinnamon rolls and go for a walk in the woods. He died of fentanyl poisoning, another social epidemic of this country that is stealing our children.

Harris was in Tuscaloosa with friends enjoying a Saturday night on the Strip. Miles was, too. And now this, a life lost and many more lives broken.

Harris would help anyone in need, say those who loved her. She was a caring soul. Until the shooting death of Harris, Miles was a celebrated basketball player for the University of Alabama. Now Harris and Miles are both memories of a tragedy for those who nurtured them, and cared for them and poured love and energy into their futures. It’s impossible to understand.

What happened that caused a shootout in the streets of Tuscaloosa? Doesn’t matter, does it? No, of course not.

Why would people bring guns with them to the Strip anyway? According to his legal counsel, Miles plans to maintain his innocence, and I’m not here to offer an opinion one way or another about the facts of this high-profile case. Like everyone else, I’m just angry, heartbroken and tired.

We are left with so many questions.

How many young people carry guns around the University of Alabama these days? Around UAB? Any campus? The names do not matter. Is it common? I have to assume the answer is yes. Is it because of the constant risk of mass shootings? Is it because at any moment someone needs a gun to solve a problem? Am I wrong in thinking that the culture of guns infecting young people is a public health crisis? Am I naive in thinking that young people don’t need guns to party around campus?

Guns, by the way, are banned on university grounds, and always have been. Always should be, of course. Somehow, because of the politics surrounding guns, that might be a controversial subject for some people. For the record, those people are fools.

I’ve been a reporter for a long time. Guns and gun violence have always been a part of the story, and so this isn’t the first time for me to report on a murder charge involving a player or former player. Still, I was in disbelief, like everyone, when I learned of the news that Miles had been arrested and charged with the death of Harris. Alabama played LSU at Coleman Coliseum on Saturday night. A few hours later, Miles was in custody after a shooting around 1:45 a.m. Sunday.

In April of 2022, former UAB football player Carlos Stephens was convicted of capital murder for the slaying of UAB nursing student Destiny Washington. Washington was shot and killed right in front of UAB’s student union. It was over a pair of AirPods.

In 2014, Auburn freshman football player Jakell Mitchell was shot and killed early on a Sunday morning. Mitchell, who was from Opelika, was 18 years old. He was at a party at an apartment complex near campus. In 2012, former Auburn players Ladarious Phillips and Edward Christian were both shot and killed at a pool party. They were 20.

In 2017, I reported a story about former Auburn football player TD Moultry living in constant fear of gun violence while in high school in Birmingham. The headline of the piece: “For a future Auburn linebacker, gun violence in Birmingham is a part of life.”

“A big piece of me is gone,” said the mother of Allen Merrick after her 19-year-old son was shot and killed in Gadsden. A star football player in high school, Merrick was a freshman at UAB.

Last summer, when a three-year-old was shot at a swimming pool in Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa deputy police chief Sebo Sanders didn’t mince words, telling CBS 42, “We need to come together as a community and put down the guns and stop the violence. Be considerate of others before acting on any hatred or beef you have with others. It’s frustrating that we get calls about somebody young, who gets shot, who is trying to enjoy their life.”

Four teenagers were charged in the shooting. The three-year-old survived. Gun violence among children and young adults is a constant worry, so these tragedies are not going away.

This isn’t the first instance of an Alabama athlete connected to gun violence in recent years. Five years ago, Alabama football player Raekwon Davis was shot in the leg while out late in Tuscaloosa. Davis refused to cooperate with police after that incident.

Why would young people be carrying guns on the Strip in Tuscaloosa on a Saturday night? I don’t have answers for this. As a society, we somehow accept it, though. The first thought for some after the killing of Harris was how her death, and the murder charge against Miles, was going to affect Alabama’s basketball season. I do have an answer for that. The season is shattered into a thousand pieces, and this sadness isn’t going away. I am sorry for that, but sports, when weighed against human lives, are trivial pursuits.

Harris of Birmingham is gone. Mitchell of Opelika is gone. Merrick of Gadsden is gone. These things are not changing, and the pain of their deaths never goes away. The pain only evolves into new phases of pain. That is just the sad truth of it when young people die.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.