Family, friends remember 'Slice,' and call for and end to violence in city
Dequoia Kemp, 15, left, and Nisha Bowens, cousins of Silas "Keith" Collier hold candles at a vigil Thursday at Mark and West Beard avenues, where Collier was shot May 12, 2007. Collier died the next day. Family and friends of Collier held a march and vigil to bring attention to the death of Collier, 21, who was shot and left to die in a car on Mark Avenue.
Syracuse, NY -- Three years after Silas Collier died, nearly 75 friends and relatives gathered to remember him, remind people of his unsolved murder and call for an end to violence in Syracuse.
The 21-year-old Syracuse man, known by the nicknames “Keith” and “Slice,” was shot a little before midnight on May 12, 2007.
Collier, a 2003 graduate of Nottingham High School who attended Erie Community College in Buffalo, had just done a favor, driving home a friend’s girlfriend. Before he pulled out of the driveway, there was a disturbance.
Police said the girlfriend – whom they have not identified because she is a witness - heard arguing and gunshots.
Collier was wounded, reached the house and knocked on the door. No one answered. From a cell phone, he called 911.
Police found Collier in the front passenger seat of the blue minivan he had been driving. He was taken to Upstate University Hospital where he was pronounced dead the afternoon of May 13.
Collier’s mother, Valerie Reese, and his aunt, Vickie Patterson helped lead a march from the intersection of South Salina Street and Brighton Ave. to Beard Street up to the corner of Mark Street then stopping at the driveway where Collier was shot. White paint marks a utility pole next to the scene: “Keith RIP Slice,” it says.
Patterson said her nephew was never coming back, but that those who were gathered didn’t have to become victims of violence. “I know it may not be cool for a man to walk away,” she said, but walking away could save their life.
“The purpose of this,” she told the young people at the vigil, “is you all.” She urged them to use mentoring programs and counseling programs and other programs that can help them avoid violence.
“You all are our future,” she said. “We’ll just be in wheelchairs looking at each other.”
Collier’s eighth-grade Spanish teacher, Maureen Gallivan, pleaded with those there to not take a violent path. “I can’t bury another kid,” she said as her voice cracked with emotion. “If you need the help, stop, ask God and look, he’s going to direct you.”
The case remains unsolved and unclosed, Reese said of her son’s murder. “They haven’t found anything yet.”
Contact Charles McChesney at cmcchesney@syracuse.com.