Strong Island Page #3

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So I said, "What's up?" And he goes,

"I need to go to pick up the car."

It was late, I thought it was weird,

but at that point I'd known the shop

to be open all types of hours of night.

So I said, "Oh, great! Are you sure

you're picking up the car?"

He's like, "Yeah, it's all done,"

and I'm like, "This is over.

Let's get in the car. It's over."

I got in the car, went the three

blocks to get to

Ford's house.

He came outside, seemed

in a good mood,

so I didn't think

anything.

He gets in the car.

I remember turning the car

on and saying,

"Let's go to Queens."

"Queens" was our strip club's...

code for going to a strip club.

"Let's go to Queens, let's get a beer."

He goes, "Yeah, sure.

Let me just go and get the car."

I said OK.

We got up the street

to the first stop sign,

and again I said,

"I think we should go get a beer,"

and he says, "Kev, you're bugging.

Take me to get the car."

We turn, we start heading

down Ferndale

towards Brightside,

and...

once you make that turn

it's pretty much right there.

I remember him going

into the yard and

somebody coming out of

the shop door

and meeting him in the yard.

And immediately words

started getting

exchanged. And I said,

"Oh, here we go."

And it's nothing physical,

and it's nothing too out of control,

so I'm just, like, not saying nothing.

I'm just kind of standing there,

and then...

someone walked out of the garage area.

Three feet, four feet,

stopped dead in his tracks.

Ford turned and said,

"Kevin, that's the kid

that cursed out my mother."

And then, back we grew up,

nobody disrespects your mom.

At that point, I knew somebody

was going to get into a fight.

There was nothing for me to say,

so I just said, "OK."

And Ford went to walk towards him.

The kid turned,

went back in the garage

and made a left.

Disappeared.

The minute Ford walked into that

garage door and made a left,

I heard a pop.

And I said to the guy, I said,

"What the hell was that?"

And he says, "I don't know."

I said, "It sounded

like an air compressor,"

and then I said,

"Do you guys have a gun here?"

He said,

"Yeah, we have one in the back."

I said, "Oh, sh*t."

The phone rang.

Kevin was on the phone.

"Ms. Ford,

you need to come to Super Stang."

I said, "Why?"

He said, "Something happened."

She takes the car.

And all I know is that

she pulled out of the driveway,

heading down Cone Avenue.

There was a barricade.

No officer spoke to me.

No officer...

would look at me.

Kevin came to me,

and he said,

"Mark Reilly shot William."

And I said to the officer,

you know...

"Where is my son?

I want to be with my son."

And he told me that...

they had taken him to LIPA,

to airlift him...

to Stony Brook.

We went to the emergency room.

The area where he was,

was...

from here to that wall...

with beds, you know,

where people were being treated.

And...

he was laying there.

And he looked so peaceful.

"The

body is that of

a well-developed obese

black male.

The body weighs 240 pounds,

is five feet, eight

inches in height,

and appears compatible

with the reported age of 24 years.

Gunshot

wound of chest.

Homicide."

Eleven o'clock rolls by.

Midnight comes by, and I haven't

heard anything from Mom.

And Dad gets home. It's about

one o'clock in the morning.

"What are you doing up? Where is

your mother? Where is William?"

And I'm like, "He was in a fight

and Mom went to get him."

I hear a car pull up outside.

You know, Dad's looking at her,

I'm downstairs looking at her,

and she comes in and she's like,

"He's gone."

- Is that how she said it?

- Yeah.

Dad just held her,

and held me, and...

cried.

We all just cried.

You know?

Dad sent me upstairs to my room.

Whatever she explained,

she explained to Dad.

She never explained it to me.

"My boss asked me to call home.

She was the Dean of Multicultural

Recruitment at Hamilton.

I asked her what was wrong.

She told me to stay calm.

I told her not to tell

me to stay calm.

My dad answered the phone.

I said, 'Is it Mom?'

He said, 'Your mother is fine.'

I said, 'Lauren?'

Or maybe I said, 'What's happening?'

He said, 'Your brother is gone.'

The next part of the conversation

is a blur to me.

I remember screaming

and punching the wall.

Packing a few clothes,

including the one dress I owned,

and leaving.

That was the beginning.

I remember walking into the house

and feeling immediately

like I was surrounded by strangers,

even though they were people I

had known for most of my life.

I remember walking in

and having to suppress the urge

to tell everyone

to get the f*** out of the house.

My mother was on the couch,

sleeping and crying.

My father was...

stunned.

Imploding.

My sister...

was alone.

And I felt like all the people

who were there were in the way,

and were obstructing my

ability to see

where the next threat

was coming from.

If I could have turned

around and left,

I would have, but that

wasn't an option."

We went to

meet with the DA.

I'm not going to lie to you and say,

"Well, the DA said this

and the detective said that."

This is what I can tell you:

from what they said,

I did not feel that we were received

as parents of a victim.

OK? We weren't received

as parents of a victim.

We were received as...

folks being informed

that an investigation had to be conducted,

and would be conducted.

OK?

I...

was foolish enough to think

that, well, you know,

"It's gonna be OK."

And then one day

I got a call to come...

see Ms. Jones.

We had no experience

with this kind of stuff.

Maybe I should have had a lawyer.

I don't know what should have went on.

She called and said "Meet me."

You just go there, answer questions...

you know, about that night.

That's what I thought.

To be honest, I didn't know she was a DA.

I was thinking I was going to a detective.

I was shocked

when she walked in the room.

She really started

with the stuff with the gym.

She was like, "You look

like you're in pretty good shape,"

and, "How much do you weigh?"

She asked something about William's size,

kind of, more telling me than asking me,

and I don't think she sat down.

She kept walking back and forth

in front of the table.

It was just...

I was like,

"Why are they asking me all these

questions about strength and gym and..."

It was not a lot about that night,

or about...

William.

What they spent time on

was investigating his background.

That's what they spent time on.

Day by day, you hear

that your son is being investigated.

Day by day, you hear rumors.

And you grow more and more afraid.

Countless number of times,

at all hours of the night,

during the summer

after my brother was killed,

I could look outside the window,

and there was a car

parked across the street.

That car, and whoever was in that car

was watching our house

and trying to intimidate my parents.

The phone rang in the middle of the night,

every night for months.

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