Mourners pay tribute to LeMoyne-Owen student
As the wind kept snuffing out their candles Wednesday night, a group of more than 50 mourners braved the cold to pay tribute to Donovan "Detroit" Mills, a LeMoyne-Owen College student shot and killed near the school Tuesday night.
Mills, 21 and a Detroit native who moved to Memphis to attend LeMoyne-Owen, was found by police in the 800 block of Saxon and Lenow around 10 p.m. Tuesday. He had been shot and was rushed to the Regional Medical Center in extremely critical condition, but did not survive. He was found just down the street from where the vigil was held, in the parking lot of one of the school's dorms.
"This was a young man we all loved. He wasn't out on the streets. He was trying to better himself," said Corbin Howard, one of those who spoke at the vigil.
Police have made no arrests in the case, nor released a possible motive in the shooting. According to witnesses, a man was seen running down Saxon after the shooting, but no description of the suspect has surfaced.
In the near-freezing temperatures, one woman read a poem about Mills while another battled tears to make it through a song for him. Mills' uncle, Roger Brown, said a visitation and memorial service are planned for Monday, beginning at 6 p.m. at Greater White Stone Missionary Baptist Church, 917 S. Wellington. The funeral will be held on Thursday in Detroit.
"Detroit was different. He had his own swag, and nobody could take that away from him," Brown said.
Mills marks the city's 218th homicide of 2016. Each new killing extends the record for most homicides in one year, a grim tally that previously stood at the 213 killings recorded in 1993.
"Make 218 mean something. 218 homicides. We need to do something to make the senseless murders stop," Brown said.
On Facebook, Mills' classmates and friends expressed their grief and disbelief over his death.
"He was a realist, just down-to-earth educated black man. We as students must carry his memory in our hearts" one classmate posted on Facebook.
"He touched a lotta lives," Daniel Haywood said at the vigil. "A lotta, lotta lives."