It's a mother's worst nightmare: her child is playing outside the house on a summer night during a family birthday party. Out of nowhere, tragedy strikes, killing her son, and she's powerless to stop it.
It was Sunsearae Hall's reality Saturday when her 12-year-old son, Kenis Green Jr., was senselessly shot to death around 1 a.m. in northwest Detroit. Greg Owens, the woman's boyfriend, was also outside and struck by the individual who fired shots from a car. He is in the hospital.
"They started yelling, 'Greg got shot, Greg got shot,'" she said amidst tears as she described the shooting in a Detroit News video. "So I jumped out of the car to try to help him. ... They just started yelling, 'your baby,' and I went and held him."
According to WJBK-TV, Owens told the kids to come inside the house when he saw the vehicle. The Detroit Free Press reports other children were able to run into the house, but Green was shot in the head before he got inside, and Owens was shot in the stomach.
Green was described by friends in Hometown Life as hard-working, fun-loving, polite and someone who loved sports. According to WXYZ-TV, he was going into the eighth grade and was a lineman on his football team.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” Green’s aunt, Miya Hall, told the Free Press. “I’ve heard about stuff like this on the news, but to actually have it impact my family, it’s unreal.”
Suspect Alvin Conwell, 33, was arraigned Thursday and remanded to the Wayne County Jail. He was was charged with first degree premeditated murder, two counts of assault with intent to murder and felony firearm in connection with Green's death and Owens' injuries.
The tragedy appears to have its roots in adult jealousy. It allegedly stemmed from an earlier fight that took place when Conwell thought Owens had been speaking to his girlfriend, according to WJBK.
The story rings terribly familiar in Detroit. Just last year, 12-year-old Kade’jah Davis was killed over what the victim's mother said solely amounted to an argument over a cell phone. The alleged perpetrator came to the door, argued with Davis' mother Amanda Talton after accusing her of having a phone that didn't belong to her, then fired shots through the door, striking the young girl several times.
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