Jarail Jackson, 18, had no criminal record.
Shontele Williams of Syracuse opens the keepsake box in memory of her son Jarail Jackson, 18, the 10th homicide in the city this year. After her son died at Upstate University Hospital, Williams says she was asked if she would like to donate her son's organs, then asked if she would like to have a mold of his hand made. She keeps it along with a lock of his hair in this box in her home next to the cards she has received.Syracuse, NY -- Jarail Jackson was enjoying some down time from summer school and the two jobs he was working. He and his girlfriend, Martinesha Boatwright, 17, went to Carousel Center to see the movie “Salt.” Jackson’s mother, Shontele Williams, picked him up at 9 p.m. that Sunday, July 25, and brought him home.
Jackson took out the trash at their Wolcott Avenue home and then asked his mother if he could stay at a friend’s house that night because they planned to work on a rap CD the next morning. Williams agreed.
“Next thing I know, he walked out of the house and I heard ambulances within 30 minutes. I panicked,” Williams said. “I didn’t even know why I panicked. Everybody kept saying, mother’s intuition.”
Jackson was riding in the front passenger seat of a red Jeep driven by Jose “Cheo” Valentin, 23, according to Julissa Valentin, Jose’s sister. The two young men were talking and listening to music when a shot was fired, from a distance, near the corner of Arthur and Rowland streets.
“My brother didn’t even know Jarail was shot,” Julissa said. “They were blasting the music and my brother said he heard a ‘pop’ sound and he thought he blew a speaker. So he started turning the music down and he said, ‘Yo Rail, I think I blew the speaker.’
Jarail Jackson“When he pressed the brake ... that’s when he (Jackson) fell over and that’s when he noticed they got shot at.”
Jose drove the Jeep to the front of his house on Bellevue Avenue, where Julissa had just been dropped off by a family member she was visiting on West Onondaga Street.
“Just seeing him there, just seeing someone who was so full of life ... to just laying there, I don’t know how to even express it in words,” Julissa said. “I stood there the whole time until the ambulance came. I couldn’t leave his side. I was just with him and I was just trying to talk to him and keep him conscious. He still had a pulse.”
Williams, Jackson’s mother, tried calling his cell phone but there was no answer. About 10 minutes later she received a call from Reggie Tarver, 18, a friend of Jackson. He told her that Jackson had been shot.
Jackson was taken to Upstate University Hospital, where he died on July 26. At 18, he became the youngest homicide victim in Onondaga County this year. He was the 10th homicide victim in Syracuse this year.
The case remains open, with Syracuse police continuing to interview people and follow leads, said Sgt. Gary Bulinski. Police have released no details about the shooting. They will not discuss the motive behind the shooting or whether Jackson was even the target. They confirmed that he had no criminal record.
Neighbors, co-workers and coaches say Jackson was a hard-working young man who played basketball and liked smoothies.
“He just got in the wrong car with somebody,” said Williams. “Everybody’s kids ain’t in gangs. People do raise their kids right.”
Jackson’s wake was Aug. 5 at Hopps Memorial CME Church in Syracuse. More than 100 friends, family and community members attended the ceremony. One of those was Mayor Stephanie Miner.
“Whether we knew Jarail Jackson or not, he was a member of our community and his senseless death is a loss to our entire community,” Miner said.
In September 2004, Williams and her two sons moved from Saginaw, Mich., for a better life and to be closer to family.
“We had watched too many deaths around us,” she said. “We moved out here to protect him from this kind of stuff because too much violence was in Michigan where I was from.”
In Syracuse, Williams found work as a nursing assistant at Crouse Hospital and a skills instructor at Arc of Onondaga. Jackson attended Corcoran High School before transferring to Fowler his sophomore year. There he played forward on the junior varsity basketball team. Almost every day after school, the Fowler varsity and junior varsity teams practiced together. Varsity coach Greg Sweeney remembered Jackson well.
“He never said boo in practice. If you said something to him, he’d just shake his head and try to work harder at it,” Sweeney said. “Just kind of a good kid. Trying to get things done.”
Despite his love for basketball, Jackson did not play basketball last year because of a new job he got at Mr. Smoothie at Carousel Center. His favorite smoothie flavors were pina colada and bubble gum, said Yesenia Hernandez, 19, a friend and co-worker who helped him get the job.
“He called me his little sister. He was like, ‘You a sister I never had,’ and stuff like that,” Hernandez said. “He always had a smile on his face.”
Jackson continued working at Mr. Smoothie through the spring with hopes of returning to the team this fall. To stay in shape, he played in the local Amateur Athletic Union on the weekends. Fowler cheerleading coach Tina DeCarlo drove Jackson and some other players to six games.
“He was such a respectful boy, very accommodating, very hard-working,” DeCarlo said. “He was a nice kid.”
About four weeks ago, Jackson got a second job working the night shift at Walmart. On his busiest day, Jackson went to summer school at Corcoran High School from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., worked at Mr. Smoothie from noon to 6 p.m., then stocked shelves at Walmart from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Williams just received one of Jackson’s Walmart checks. He was saving to buy a car, Williams said.
“When I went into Walmart, by the time I walked out I was in tears. I’m trying to deal with it, and put up a front, but it’s hard,” Williams said. “I avoid everything so I can just act like it’s not real. He’s going to walk back through my door any minute. Any minute my son is going to come home.”
At Mr. Smoothie, Hernandez taped up a small sign near the cash register asking for donations. So far she has collected $32 to help with Williams’ expenses.
Many of the Fowler basketball players were devastated by Jackson’s death, Sweeney said. The team and the coaches are thinking of ways to pay tribute to him this fall.
“It’s a huge loss to his teammates. I was looking forward to seeing what he could do this year,” Sweeney said. “It affected my guys, it hit them really hard ... because they realize (there) are good kids getting caught in the middle of these things.”
Anyone with information about Jackson’s death is asked to call 442-5222.
Contact Fernando Alfonso III at falfonso@syr.edu
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» Syracuse teenager on life support after Bellevue Avenue shooting
» Syracuse police release name of shooting victim on life support
» Obituary of Jarail Jackson