Family of Dadeville shooting victim honor city’s resilience: ‘Life after death’

At noon, a church organ plays over the town square of Dadeville. A blue and white water tower with the words “Home of the Dadeville Tigers” rises over small red-bricked buildings and storefronts.

On the square, the former Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio building is up for rent, one year after a chaotic shooting at a Sweet 16 party left four people dead and 32 others injured, many of them children and young adults. But that’s not where people plan to gather to remember Shaunkivia Nicole Smith, 17; Marsiah Emmanuel Collins, 19; Philstavious Dowdell, 18; and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 23.

Instead, people gathered at Tiger Stadium, before prom, for a lantern lighting and release.

“She was definitely one of God’s angels,” Teneeshia Johnson, a Dadeville city council member, said of Smith.

Despite their losses and the pain of that day, residents say they want Dadeville to be remembered, not for the shooting, but for how the small community rallied to support survivors.

Sunday afternoon, residents gathered in Keebler park, where new benches with the names of the victims were erected. And Monday at 8 p.m. residents and survivors, like 17-year-old Trinity Richards, will come to the Dadeville High School football field for a memorial program.

“Even though last year was a tragedy, when people look up Dadeville, I want them to see that Dadeville is a caring community, a caring city where their residents come together as one, as a family to help those in need,” Mayor Jimmy Frank Goodman Sr. said. “It’s the people that make the change. Dadeville is headed in the right direction.”

What happened at Dadeville?

As families and survivors grieve, it’s still hard to figure out what exactly happened that night. What went wrong? They know six people were later arrested and charged with reckless murder: Johnny Letron Brown of Tuskegee; Willie George Brown Jr. of Auburn; Wilson LaMar Hill Jr. of Auburn; Sherman Peters III, of Tuskegee; and brothers Tyreese McCullough and Travis McCullough, of Tuskegee. Three of them were minors.

But of the cases still visible in the court system – Johnny Brown, Willie Brown, Wilson Hill, Sherman Peters – none have yet gone to trial. Law enforcement officials have not spoken publicly about possible motives. Prosecutors have not yet laid out a version of what happened. District attorney Mike Segrest was not available for comment last week.

On the night of the shooting, around 11 p.m., Goodman was woken up by a call from a city councilman. After learning the news, Goodman rushed to the local Lake Martin Community Hospital to see mothers crowding the waiting room, trying to figure out if their child was alive or dead.

“From then to that Monday, I didn’t get any sleep at all. It was like being in a dream. People screaming everywhere and running around. In the emergency room, there’s blood everywhere and ambulances running in and out,” Goodman said.

It was hard for parents and police and friends and survivors to piece together what had happened in the dark room full of dozens of people, but they knew that at one point, LaTonya Allen, mother of Phil Dowdell and birthday girl Alexis Dowdell, saw guns in the room, grew worried and asked adults and people with guns to leave. Not long after that, shots rang out.

It wasn’t just a few shots; it was rapid fire, probably from multiple guns in all directions, law enforcement officials said. Two of the guns may have been modified to shoot like automatics. And one of the first people to shoot may have been Holston, who was found with a gun on him, officials said at the time. His family said he had gone to the party to check on a family member.

All told, seven guns were used and 89 shell casings were found at the scene from all kinds of weapons, according to law enforcement. Some of those bullets passed through cheerleaders Trinity Richards and Cara Johns. One cut through the hip of then-16-year-old Bre Hutchinson. And two bullets paralyzed Kendarrius Heard, then a senior and football player at Dadeville High.

Of the victims, the oldest known was mother LaTonya Allen, but most were teens and young adults. The youngest were two 14-year-olds.

Read more: Teen who barely survived Dadeville shooting: ‘I was saved to help other people’

Many of the students at the shooting went to Dadeville High. Principal Chris Hand had just driven several of them to and from a track meet.

He remembers the “devastation,” he said, and the frenzy to understand who was hurt and injured, or worse. Then the last month of school, with many students struggling to finish the year, Hand left his job June 30 and moved to Utah, where he now teaches fifth grade.

“I knew all of those students very well,” he said. “It just… it has affected me in so many ways, in how I go about things now, and what I consider important and not important anymore.”

The aftermath

Goodman said he remembers the night of the shooting the same way he remembers the trauma of being a teen fighting in the Vietnam War.

“It gets me to a point where I can’t sleep for two or three nights. I know these families are worse off than I was,” Goodman said. “These families, their minds have been tormented and that’s something that they will never forget.”

In the weeks and months after the shooting, Ben Hayes, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dadeville, said people from all over the country donated money to help pay for burial plots, utility bills, rent, lost wages and travel to and from the hospital and physical therapy sessions.

Hayes said more than $240,000 was donated to the families of the victims and survivors.

“We received money from everywhere. It was nothing but a blessing, nothing but a blessing the way that people came together, called in and wrote letters in support of Dadeville,” Goodman said. “God took care of us. You can’t help but to cry about how good it all is.”

“It was just an amazing thing to see the friendships that were formed and the bonds that were strengthened,” Hayes said. “Dadeville is a great community to live in. We have a great, close knit community. You come on a Friday night during football season you’ll see hundreds of people on the field, cheering on the team. It’s an amazing experience to live here.”

But what could have stopped the shooting? The Alabama legislature currently is considering making Glock switches a state level offense, but both Goodman and Rep. Ed Oliver said they do not believe different gun control laws would have made a difference in Dadeville.

“We can pass laws till we’re blue in the face and until people have respect for the law, that just doesn’t matter,” Oliver told AL.com last week.

Hayes said the community is starting a mentorship program to pair boys with absent fathers with a mentor who will teach them about conflict resolution and the importance of mental health and wellness.

“One of the things we had to do, especially for the students, is tell them that it’s okay to laugh, to have fun. Yes, something horrible happened, but they have long lives ahead of them. We want them to know that it’s okay to go back and start living it,” Hayes said.

Dadeville High students also formed an Equitable Neighborhood Initiative Youth Community Council in October to help other students with mental health challenges.

“We’re trying to break the stigma of mental health in young people, because a lot of these young people are still dealing with depression and anxiety behind what happened,” Johnson said.

Next steps

Amy Jackon, Shaunkivia Smith’s cousin, said the community continues to support her family financially, spiritually and emotionally.

“Everyday is different, today I’m upbeat, I’m excited because I was able to do the things that I set out to do for Shaunkivia. But I do have bad days. We all do. I try to cover my bad days up just so I can help my family members, her parents, her siblings, her grandmother,” Jackson said. “I do have bad days, but I live off of her memories. I try to think of all the good things, all the silly stuff she used to do. That brings me through my bad times.”

Teneeshia Johnson is neighbors with Smith’s family. She worked with Jackson to host a memorial gala on Saturday to keep Shaunkivia’s legacy alive.

“Shaunkivia was one of the most mature teenagers I had been around, very responsible. She has two siblings that are way younger than her that she was very affectionate and caring with. She touched the life of anybody that came into contact with this young lady. She was always in a good mood and just so respectful,” Johnson said.

The money raised from the gala will go toward an annual scholarship fund.

The gala has raised over $3,000 to award to two Dadeville High School students who aspire to go into the nursing field, like Smith once dreamed of doing.

“The memorial scholarship for Shaunkivia Smith is about her not being able to fulfill her dream of being a nurse. She lost her life four weeks prior to graduating high school. After high school she was going to pursue her education of being a nurse at UAB. That’s something she always wanted to do as a child. In order for us to help carry on her legacy we want to help somebody else live out the dream she wanted,” Jackson said.

“Anything Shaunkivia did, she did it with passion. She did it with love. She had a lot of love. She was only 17 but she was like a burst of sunshine. She lit up a room when she walked in. She was caring. She loved life.”

The gala will feature motivational speakers to discuss the importance of mental health and how to heal after a tragedy.

“I want to show people that there’s life after death,” Jackson said.

Johnson said she has seen community members become more compassionate and caring in the wake of the shooting.

“We had to heal together, as one. Of course it was a tragedy, but in every tragedy, there’s sunshine. I’ve seen people reach out and do things like I never have before,” Johnson said. “God brought the best out of everyone in this town.”