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Slaying Victims' Families Rally For Public's Help

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By SARAH HOYE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 16, 2007

TAMPA - A host of friends and relatives of slaying victims whose cases remain unsolved made an emotional appeal to the community Saturday.

If you have information that will help solve these cases, come forward, said Vidal Mills, father of Jefferson High School football star Cedric 'C.J.' Mills, who was shot in his front yard April 25. Vidal Mills criticized the unofficial 'no snitching' street policy running rampant in urban areas.

'Fear is all in the mind. If you're so scared of them criminals, get them off the street,' he said.

'If you're afraid to talk to the police, come and talk to me ... Let me know, I will speak for you.'

The event was organized by Lucy Mills, grandmother of 17-year-old C.J., with assistance from Advocates for Safer Communities.

'People need to speak up and tell what they know and stop hindering the case,' Lucy Mills said of the rally. 'I know one day we'll have this case closed, but 'one day' isn't soon enough for me.'

The group of nearly 60 people met in a vacant lot in West Tampa. They sat in folding chairs or staked out small plots of grass, all the while swatting at bugs and blotting beads of sweat.

'If we don't bring neighborhoods together, no one will change anything,' said Darla Saunders, founder of Advocates for Safer Communities. In 2005, her son, Isaiah Brooks, had just turned 18 when he was shot and killed in Ybor City. 'We have to safeguard our neighborhoods.'

Tampa law enforcement officials - detectives, a community officer for the district and the police chief - pleaded for help from community members. Representatives from the Nation of Islam and mourning mothers also addressed the group.

'We expect to work hard, but we need your help,' said Police Chief Stephen Hogue, referring to the approximately 30 unsolved cases under investigation or classified as cold. 'Somebody out there knows something and we need to get to that person.'

Players from the Jefferson football team alongside their coaches made their way to the lot to show their support.

'Every day I get college letters and they're still recruiting C.J.,' said Jefferson head football coach Mike Fenton. 'We need closure ... It Mills' death haunts us on a daily basis.'

The case is under investigation, with police continuing to look for Mills' cell phone, described as a white LG Chocolate brand, and a round religious medallion, both missing since the shooting.

Betty Knowles, whose son Tedric Maynard, 25, was gunned down in March, sat beside her daughter Lawanda Langston and mustered up the strength to speak.

'We need to get together like this to save these children. If you know something, tell somebody,' she said. 'There is nothing like losing your child.'

Reporter Sarah Hoye can be reached at (813) 259-7832 or shoye@tampatrib.com.

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