Dispatch: Four months after a homicide

Dovon Harris, 15, was murdered in Watts four months ago, dying on June 17. The Homicide Report has been following his family's experience in monthly installments since then.

This month would have been Dovon's 16th birthday.

His family celebrated with cake in a rented hall. Scores of friends and family members attended. Dovon's siblings and close friends blew out the candles.

"I was thinking about him all the time," his mother, Barbara Pritchett, said. "Thinking about what he would be doing if he were there. He'd be messing with everybody."

Pritchett had been doing OK, she said--back to normal, ostensibly, and on the job as a health-care worker.

But three days after the party, she fell apart.

It was her own birthday. When Dovon was alive, he always found her in the kitchen first thing in the morning, and said, "Here's your day! Here's your kiss!"

In the morning, she drove her brother to school. Then, "I came back and I never made it out of the car," she said. "I sat in the car for three hours and cried."

The next day, she went to work, and the same thing happened. "I was supposed to take the patient for errands," she said. "But when I went, I just sat in the car crying. I finally had to go inside and apologize."

On the next day she went to a medical center to inquire about counseling. She felt ill at ease, she said. "But I'm determined not to let this beat me. I know I need counseling."

Other family members are also registering the effects of grief. Since the murder, some relatives who once felt at ease at Pritchett's house now seem to feel uncomfortable there. Pritchett, her siblings, and her children, tell each other they are fine even when they're not. They go off alone to cry.

Dewayne Harris, 26, Dovon's older brother (second from left), spent one day recently alone at the grave, sobbing.

Dovon's 18-year-old sister Dwaina (right) attended a meeting for teenagers held by the pastor at her church. They talked about the murder. Many of the teens were angry. Why? they asked.

Afterward Dwaina had one of her dreams about Dovon. She dreamed he was there at the meeting. "Every question everyone asked, he had an answer," she said. Then she woke up, and the answers weren't there anymore.

See Three Months After, and, Two Months After, and, One Month After.

Comments

[La Sundra]

Dear Ms. Pritchett,

I'm so sorry for the loss of your beautiful baby and can definitely relate to your pain, as my family and I experienced the same approximately 3 months ago when we lost our 19 year old to a senseless murder as well. Just as you and your family had to celebrate Dovon's 16th birthday without him being there, we too spent what would have been Michael's 20th b-day two months after he was murdered at the cemetery. I know there are no words anyone can say to make you feel better and I understand no one can comfort the other and you cry alone in order not to bring the others down, just as we do. My prayers are definitely with you and your family.

La Sundra

[cheryl]

to the family of this young man i am so sorry for your lost i know how it truly feels my son ernest was murdered on 10-2-06 3 days before his 19th birthday i just went to get counseling monday i got up out of my bed to seek some help as i knew my mind was leaving me i cant get this out of my head 2 guys were arrestes shortly after that and they are in the l.a county jail trial will start sometime this month i dread seeing there ugly faces to know this is the last face my boy saw one guy stood over my ernest in the doorway of a store front church on vernon and western i know how you feel like some one said only another mother who has walked in these shoes can know this awful agony i often go to the cemetary alone to cry i miss my son so much like the mom said i would'nt wish this on my worst enemy because this is a pain that wont go away. peace and harmony to your family may your angel watch over you with those wings he has now.