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Tayana Kelly (left) holds a poster in memory of Baron Braswell II during last night's Courtland girls basketball game. Kelly sits with relatives Jade Johnson (middle) and Dalya Qawiy.
Students arrive at James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg yesterday. Five James Monroe football players are among six teens facing charges in the weekend stabbing death of Baron P. Braswell II, a Courtland High School football player. |
By TODD JACOBSON
When Baron Braswell Sr. pulled up to the Howard Johnson motel in Spotsylvania County, he found a spot right in front of the entrance. His son was in the passenger's seat, dressed in a Tiki Barber New York Giants jersey.
Baron Braswell II was excited about the party; he'd just finished a week of midterms. But his father held him in the car for a bit, wanting to scope out security. He noticed that guards were patting down people, checking them for weapons.
"I saw about four kids go in," Braswell Sr. recalled yesterday. "I said, 'You can go.' I said, 'I'll see you later.'"
As the 16-year-old boy got out of his dad's car, Kendrick Kenney and Antonio Smith, two of his teammates on the Courtland High School football team, showed up.
"I said, 'Hey, B is going in there. You guys look out for each other,'" Baron's father said. "They said, 'Yeah, Mr. Braswell.' I said, 'You guys go and have fun.'"
The party was supposed to end at 1 a.m. The father was planning to return to get his son at 12:30.
Courtland senior Hakim Cardwell had known Baron since the younger Braswell was a freshman at Courtland. The pair played football together on the Cougars' team and became fast friends, though Cardwell didn't know his teammate was going to be at the party.
When Cardwell saw Braswell, the pair quickly struck up a conversation and started hanging out. In the dark, packed room--"There were way more than 100 people there," Cardwell said--the group danced, talked to girls and celebrated the end of midterm exams.
Several scuffles had already broken out when Cardwell said the real trouble began.
"They put on a song called 'Knuck If You Buck' and everyone started jumping around. Usually that happens when that song comes on," Cardwell said. "People started yelling 'Mayfield' and someone said something about Caroline or something of that nature."
Cardwell said a scuffle broke out, but he wasn't sure who was involved. He knew Braswell was somewhere nearby.
"You couldn't tell who was in the scuffle; everyone was wearing dark-color shirts," Cardwell said. "Everyone was trying to figure out what was going on."
Nearly 20 detectives from Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and a regional gang task force have spent the better part of the past four days trying to figure that out, too. Last night, Spotsylvania Sheriff Howard Smith offered some of the early conclusions they've reached.
Smith said a production company that was releasing a new CD rented the room, which overflowed with students from throughout the area. He said the room's capacity was under 100.
Smith said some in the crowd started yelling "Mayfield Mob" and flashing a signal--putting down three fingers to form the letter "M" on each hand.
Standing near that group, Braswell yelled "Courtland Cougars!" Smith said. Spotsylvania detectives believe the tragedy happened shortly afterward, about 11:30 p.m.
Baron was punched and knocked to the ground, Smith said. Seven to 10 people--all of whom Smith believes are in the "Mayfield Mob"--started kicking and stomping the boy, the sheriff said.
The fatal blow came when a folding knife with about a 4-inch blade pierced the left side of Braswell's chest, Smith said. The sheriff said Baron was still on the floor when he was stabbed.
After several minutes, Cardwell said, the lights came on in the room. He saw Braswell, and saw a patch of blood seeping through the Giants jersey.
"He didn't even realize what happened," Cardwell said. "He still was angered by what was going on. He was yelling toward the people who were in the fight. I was like, 'You are bleeding.' We took off his shirt and that's when I noticed the gash."
"I took his shirt and applied it to the wound and I was holding it there," Cardwell said. "I held him and I moved him to a chair. People were saying he was bleeding all around us. They were telling people who ran the party, and some of the gentleman running the party came over and grabbed Baron, picked him up and carried him outside."
Cardwell remained as security and police officers locked down the room. Those who remained waited inside the room.
"The mood was very tense. It was hot and it was hard to breathe," Cardwell said. "We were all just standing there. I was worried about Baron and making sure he was OK."
It was a Friday night, so Braswell Sr. was relaxing at home with his younger son, 10-year-old Zach, when the insurance agent got a call sometime around 11:30 p.m. from a female friend of his son's.
Something had happened at the party, and Baron was hurt. He had to get there, and quick.
"The young lady that called me was very reliable," Braswell Sr. said yesterday. "I knew it was a friend. I could tell in her voice it was him. I knew they knew him and it wasn't a mistake."
But when Braswell Sr. arrived, with Zach in tow, police and partygoers flooded the parking lot. He couldn't get near the scene, but saw an ambulance and followed it to Mary Washington Hospital.
Braswell Sr. and Zach looked through the back window of the ambulance in horror.
"I saw the EMTs working on my son and they looked exasperated," the father said. "They were trying hard. I guess they weren't getting anything. I was following them and having hope that maybe everything was all right, that they could revive him."
More than a dozen friends and teammates began arriving at Mary Washington Hospital. Courtland athletic director Ronnie Lowman and Courtland football coach J.C. Hall showed up.
Braswell was allowed in to see his son shortly before he was pronounced dead. When he left the hospital around 2 a.m., Lowman and Hall followed Braswell home to make sure he arrived safely.
"I needed to gather myself," Braswell Sr. said.
Once home, he broke down.
There were no additional arrests yesterday, but Smith said he expects there will be more. Detectives intend to charge everyone they believe kicked or stomped Braswell.
Already, 17-year-old Fredericksburg resident Marvin M. Parker II has been charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit assault by mob, assault by mob and participation in a street gang. Smith said nobody else will be charged with murder, as detectives believe just one person did the actual stabbing.
Five James Monroe High School football players--who range in age from 15 to 17--are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit malicious wounding by mob, malicious wounding by mob and participating in a street gang.
All of those charged are in a juvenile-detention facility pending a Feb. 10 hearing.
Smith said detectives believe that the person who knocked Baron Braswell down is already in custody, but he didn't say which defendant they think did it. He said detectives don't believe the puncher and the stabber are the same person.
Numerous people interviewed by The Free Lance-Star have said that the people charged--Parker and five teens --are good teens, not gang members.
But Smith said detectives believe they were in a gang--the Mayfield Mob, named after the city neighborhood where some of them live. He thinks the group came to the party looking for trouble.
He said detectives aren't sure whether the group had targeted anyone, but they know it wasn't Braswell. One rumor is that Braswell was a victim of mistaken identity; the group was looking for someone named "Deuce," which was also Braswell's nickname.
Cardwell said Braswell was simply caught in the middle of it: "It didn't all evolve because of him."
Courtland beat James Monroe in a close game that ultimately decided the Battlefield District title this fall, but Smith said detectives don't believe the incident had anything to do with a football rivalry or a dispute between two schools.
He urged students to avoid further violence.
"One killing is enough," Smith said.
Smith said the Fredericksburg area isn't used to dealing with gangs, but his office believes the area does have them. He pointed out that a regional gang task force was recently started with nearly $400,000 in state and federal grants.
Fredericksburg City Council members Hashmel Turner, a Mayfield resident, and Kerry Devine, who teaches at Walker-Grant Middle School, said they think that calling groups like the "Mayfield Mob" gangs might be an exaggeration.
City Police Chief David Nye said there hasn't been any significant gang activity in the city, though police have received reports of gang members from elsewhere coming here from time to time.
Rebecca Currie, who works with the charitable Sunshine Lady Foundation, said she knows the five JM football players charged.
"They should not be labeled a gang," Currie said. "I adore them. They're good boys."
She said she didn't know Parker well. He had been in juvenile detention and hadn't spent a lot of time in Fredericksburg recently, she said.
Parker had been enrolled in ninth grade at James Monroe at the beginning of the 2002-03 academic year, according to Ellen Delano, coordinator of the regional alternative education program.
Delano said the boy was referred to the alternative program--which is for students in the city and surrounding counties who have been issued long-term suspensions or expulsions--in February 2003. Parker started the next school year in the program but was dismissed for behavioral problems in October 2003, she said.
He then spent some time in juvenile detention before returning to Mayfield, Delano said. Parker asked to get back into the program last fall but was denied because of his previous history there, she said. An article in The Free Lance-Star yesterday was incorrect on Parker's enrollment status.
Delano said Parker had been enrolled in Fredericksburg's Employment Resources Inc. program--which helps prepare students for the GED as well as giving them work-readiness and life-skills training.
Some residents interviewed yesterday in Mayfield spoke highly of Parker and his family.
"I've known them since they were infants," Maria Brown said. "It's a nice family. They are quiet people, very respectful. This is all just shocking."
Jeff Brandon, a sophomore at JM and a neighbor, said Parker was "a fun dude."
"He was one of the average cats around here," Brandon said.
But now Parker is in custody along with the first five teens charged. He went to the Fredericksburg Police Department with his mother Monday night to turn himself in.
Spotsylvania Juvenile Judge Joseph J. Ellis denied Parker bond at an arraignment yesterday morning. A March 23 hearing has been scheduled to determine whether there is probable cause to suggest the teens committed the crimes and to sort out if they'll be tried as adults.
Smith said detectives are continuing to interview people who attended the party. He said the knife believed used in the stabbing was found in Spotsylvania, but he would not give the exact location.
Smith said it doesn't appear that there were drugs or alcohol at the party. There were private security guards there, but the Sheriff's Office had not been notified of the event. Smith said his office often isn't informed about events in private locations.
The Friday-night event has weighed heavily on much of the community this past weekend. There have been moments of silence at athletic events and government meetings. A makeshift memorial with flowers and Styrofoam cups--"RIP Baron"--has been placed on a fence near Courtland High to remember the receiver and defensive back who was prepping for the SATs and hoping for a college football career.
"He was a wonderful son," Braswell Sr. said, "and I'm going to miss him more than I know."
To reach TODD JACOBSON:
Email: tjacobson@freelancestar.com
