Page 4
November 18, 2015
Cold Case Murders Confronted
C ontinued from f ront
term, but sometimes even a death
sentence. Witnesses or informants
have historically run risks with
police officers that might not give
them the protection they need af-
ter providing critical information,
or risks within communities of be-
ing targeted for betraying neigh-
bors, family members, or locals
who have committed crimes.
The campaign billboard fea-
tures the consequences of this
long-term “No Snitching” culture
– a row of black women holding
up the photos of their sons, daugh-
ters, and other family members
who have been killed with no one
being held accountable.
Like thousands of other black
families across the United States,
they are left to pick up the pieces
after the loved ones in their lives
are killed or disappear. There is no
information that leads to the kill-
er, and the case goes cold because
no witnesses are willing to come
forward.
Of the grieving women on the
billboard, one is a familiar face for
the many local vigils and meet-
ings she has attended. She is Lucy
Mashia, a Portland mother whose
son, Leonard James “L.J.” Irving
was murdered over two years ago.
“I just want to know why,”
photo by o livia o livia /t he p ortland o bserver
Taunya Mayo lost her son Dion Anthony Matthews Jr. in a homicide
only a few weeks ago. Still in shock, she wonders if she will ever
find justice.
Mashia asked, during a memorial
meeting earlier this year of victim
families after another young black
man, D’Andre Dickerson, was
murdered. “The suffering is hard
for me, when I still don’t have any
answers, when I still have to ask
when someone out there knows
how my son died and who killed
him.”
“I’m not afraid of them,”
Mashia said. “I am not going to
live in fear or gangs and no one
else here should either.”
Her sentiment is not unique –
at the same vigil, several mothers,
sisters, even daughters expressed
the same concerns. The room
went silent, as a new grieving
family joined Mashia and others
down the same dark path of won-
dering: who killed their son?
Last week, the Enough is
Enough PDX group met publicly
to unveil their new “SNITCH”
campaign but also to discuss the
issue at heart – what can they do
to get more information about
loved ones’ violent deaths, and
how can they do their part in end-
ing a cycle of violence the room
described repeatedly as senseless
and meaningless.
“What good is it to take my
son from me? What good is it to
a talk about these young people
like gangsters or gang violence
statistics? That is someone’s baby
you’re talking about,” pled Kim-
berly Dixon, who lost her son An-
dreas Dixon Jones two years ago.
“I carried him for 42 weeks, and
no one held a vigil but me – but he
was not a statistic. He was a hu-
man. He was my child. My son.”
Dixon, who looked steadi-
ly into cameras and the faces of
local reporters hoping to get her
message out there, later com-
forted a new mother along with
the rest of the group. Dixon is
also the committee chair for
Enough is Enough PDX, so she
has consistently been one of the
first people to reach out to new-
ly bereaved mothers along with
Antoinette Edwards, director of
the Portland Office of Youth Vi-
olence Prevention.
The newest grieving mother
in attendance, Taunya Mayo, lost
her son, Dion Anthony Matthews
Jr., only a few weeks ago. Still
in shock, she wonders if she too
will never find justice or the kill-
er of her 23-year-old son.
“It’s just being a decent human
being, to let people know if you
saw a person killed,” she said.
“Someone had to have seen my
son get killed and I can’t imagine
living with that and saying abso-
lutely nothing.”
Multnomah County Deputy
District Attorney Eric Zimmer-
man also spoke at the meeting,
explaining how often “there is
not a soul to be found” when au-
thorities seek leads on killings,
even with multiple witnesses.
So far this year, there have
been 28 homicides in Portland
this year.
Dixon said it’s not just a prob-
lem for the mothers in the room,
either, “It can happen to any-
body,” she said, “so we all have to
work to get information to these
families. There are obstacles, it is
difficult, but it must be done.”
www.trainedtohatebutdesignedtolove.com