Alife community activist Joseph Dinon, also known as Capo Joe, was one of the speakers at the weekend event. He said that it is important for the society to mourn and honor the memory of the child and stand together for justice and change.
“We have to come together and we have to speak up,” Dinan said. “There were people in these apartments who spoke, you know what I’m saying, but as I was telling them, sometimes you have to go above and beyond.”
According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Lee was beaten to death shortly before Thanksgiving last year. His body was left in an apartment with his three brothers, whom investigators said were abandoned and forced to fend for themselves for nearly a year.
Heidi Carter said she has known the family for more than 40 years and has even seen the boys’ mother, Gloria Williams, grow up.
Carter said she made several attempts to contact Williams over the past year, and at one point, her calls were blocked.
“It’s been a terrible week,” Carter said. “It’s heartbreaking, devastating and we’re trying to make it through this ordeal day after day. Every time we got close to her (Williams), she’d go. Get close, She will leave. , so we were like ‘What’s up?'”
Carter described Lee as an obedient, loving and loving little boy.
Among the crowd at the alert, was 10-year-old Josh Todd. Todd used to play with little boys when his grandmother lived in the apartment complex. His mother Shadarra Todd said she wanted to attend Saturday’s event to pay tribute to her.
“It’s tough,” Todd said. “It will be hard for those kids, most likely, the rest of their lives, so it’s definitely heartbreaking.”
Todd said he had a difficult conversation with his son about what to do and how to speak when something was going on.
Todd said, “Tell her to bring my baby here, all these kids, that they love.” “That they have someone to go to. The community came out today. Even if you feel like you can’t go to your parents, you know, maybe talk to a friend , talk to the neighbor. If something is going on, talk to a teacher. You have to tell someone.”
Matthew Mouton created a custom tribute for Kendrick Lee that read, ‘Protect Our Children’ along with photos of an 8-year-old surrounded by candles and souvenirs.
“I don’t want the names or faces of these kids to be forgotten,” Mouton said. “Just stop the violence. Every day I make one of these, and I feel like it’s going to be the last, and it’s always two, three, four, five, and it’s getting out of control, and we get a We need to come together as a community and stop this.”
Resources for reporting child abuse or neglect:
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)
24-hour, toll-free abuse hotline, 1-800-252-5400.
ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline
National hotline 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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9-year-old dead inside SW Houston apartment for a year, left behind by 3 other kids: HCSO
Mother, lover arrested, brother abandoned in case of mutilated body of 8-year-old girl
Brothers describe beating death of 8-year-old boy at their family home in new court detail
Grandmother said the woman accused of killing her own child is ‘not a mother’
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