Jeffrey X. butler Jr. Against Senseless violence Foundation

                                                                                                                             
Grieving Chicago mothers plea for community's help in solving sons' 2011 killings

'Nightmare' in Englewood: Friends shot to death in driveway

July 08, 2013|Dawn Turner Trice

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Debra Butler-Cureton cries after an anti-violence march Saturday in Englewood. (Anthony Souffle, Chicago Tribune)

On July 9, 2011, Demitrius Chrystal, 23, and Jeffrey Butler, 19, were killed in a double homicide in the Englewood neighborhood.

They were shot around 2 a.m. in a vehicle and their bodies lay outside Demitrius' mother's home in the 6900 block of South Stewart Avenue for more than four hours before they were discovered by a man walking through the neighborhood.

Their cases have not been solved and join the scores of other unsolved murder cases from 2011.

Their mothers say they can't begin to heal until justice is served.

On Saturday, Debra Chrystal and Debra Butler-Cureton marched with family members and supporters through the Englewood community to remind people of their sons' murders and ask witnesses to come forward.

On Tuesday, a memorial service will be held at Englewood's St. John Evangelist Missionary Baptist Church.

Here's an edited excerpt of what Chrystal and Butler-Cureton told me they hope to convey, in their own words:

I am Debra Chrystal and I am desperate for justice. On July 9, 2011, my worst nightmare happened when my beloved son Demitrius was found dead in my driveway, seated on the passenger's side of his friend's car. The very home that has existed in my family since the 1950s became his murder site.

Family members have been trying to get me to move. But I can't because I feel like I would be abandoning the case. I also feel like my son's spirit is still here.

I have so many questions about what happened and who murdered my son. I loved Demitrius and no words can explain the pain that his murder has caused me. Nothing in life will ever look, feel or sound the same to me. I have been in poor health for years, and this tragedy has taken the little strength I had left. I continue to have many sleepless nights and unyielding heartache.

Demitrius and I shared a special bond. I know a lot of mothers say that their sons are good kids, but I was blessed and never had any problems out of him. He worked full time at a grocery store. He helped me administer my medications.

Every time I hear about another young person who's been murdered, it saddens me as I think about their parents. I hear many people say that they can't imagine this type of pain and grief. I hate that what other people can't imagine is my reality. I am yet another Chicago mother who's had to bury her child because of gun violence.

My family and I have made several phone calls to the Chicago Police Department and have attended community meetings on gun violence. During one meeting last March at St. Sabina Church, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy promised families with unsolved murder cases that they would have an opportunity to meet with the police to get updates on their cases.

We have not had any such meeting and believe the investigation has stalled. I understand that the Chicago Police Department may consider my son's case one of many. But to me, he was my one and only, my heart, my everything.

This is not just about the police. There are residents who live in my community who know what happened. I pray that God gives them the strength to speak up.

My name is Debra Butler-Cureton. I am a mother who grieves every day over the loss of her son, Jeffrey X. Butler Jr. He was 19 years old when he was killed. He had been an honors student at Simeon Career Academy and was working to save up for college.

He had a job as an aide caring for disabled people at a social services agency, and he was a new father.

As he was growing up, we called him Jay and he was a lovable child. Anything I asked him to do, he never hesitated. He couldn't say "no" to anybody who needed him. He worked the overnight shift and he would leave the job at 6 a.m. and then come home and drive his two little brothers to school every day.

He was always available when I needed him. He didn't hang out on the streets.

I am in therapy because I can't accept that he's gone. Two years later, I'm still angry. Sometimes all of this feels like a dream, a nightmare. I want my son back, and it hurts every day. On Aug. 17, he would have turned 22.

When the police returned his truck to us, his money was still on the front seat, so we believe that whoever murdered him wasn't after money. We believe Jeffrey was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In honor of my son, I've formed the nonprofit JXB Against Senseless Violence Foundation. I would like to build a community center to help keep children in Englewood off the streets. Some of them would be boys and girls that my son mentored.

We know there are witnesses who saw what happened but are afraid to come forward. All I can say is, 'Suppose this was your child. What would you do?'"

We must stop the silence. That's all I'm saying. Stop the silence. Come forward and help our family get justice and find peace.

Anyone with information regarding the killings of Demitrius Chrystal and Jeffrey Butler can call Area South detectives at 312-747-8272. You may do so anonymously.

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Shooting deaths mobilize aunt to speak up in search of answersAugust 01, 2011|Dawn Turner TriceDonna Rogers spent Saturday afternoon marching through a portion of the Englewood community denouncing the area's violence. This was her first time marching.

She has spent recent evenings going door to door there, passing out fliers about a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in the July 9 shooting deaths of her nephew and his friend. Before July 9, Rogers hadn't passed out fliers before.

"I have felt for the last month what it feels like to get involved and I want to say to people: 'Get involved before it happens to you,'" said Rogers.

"I grew up here, and I know people are afraid. I know that when you hear gunfire, the last thing you want to do is run to the window. In fact, you do the opposite. You hit the floor until it passes. But we just can't keep letting this happen. No one sees anything. No one hears anything. No one talks about it."

Rogers no longer lives in Englewood, but she still owns a house there and teaches first grade at an elementary school in the community. She and her fellow teachers complain about their students not having a "decent" library within walking distance of their homes.

She listens to her 6- and 7-year-olds talk about the violence in the area, and the threat from gangs and drugs.

She said she's not naive. She's known about the high rate of murders in Englewood. But this time, this particular one has hit close home.

Since the July 9 shootings, Rogers said her family has been trying to find the answers to a long list of questions, beginning with, "Why?"

"Gunfire is so common over here that people hear shots and it's considered normal," said Rogers. "How do you get to that point? Why are we allowing the thugs to take over our streets and we're not doing anything about it?

"We had two young men lying out dead on a city street, and nobody saw them until hours later. How does that happen?"

Police told me that the investigation into the deaths of Rogers' nephew, Demitrius Chrystal, 23, and his friend, Jeffrey Butler, 19, is ongoing. Detectives still have not established a motive for the shootings.

Rogers said Chrystal and Butler went to a party on the evening of July 8. Butler, who had a job working with mentally disabled people, had to be at work at 2 a.m. and as the party was winding down, Butler drove Chrystal to his home in the 6900 block of South Stewart Avenue.

Rogers said that Chrystal spoke with one of his cousins on his cellphone briefly at 1:35 a.m., while Butler's SUV was parked in the driveway beside the two-flat building. What happened after that is still unclear.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Officer Robert Perez said Chrystal's and Butler's bodies were discovered in front of the building just before 7 a.m. on July 9.

Rogers said the person who initially found the bodies was a man who was walking through the neighborhood.

"My nephew was still in the van, hanging out (of an open door on the passenger's side) with his seat belt still on," said Rogers. "He had been shot once in the arm and once under his neck. Jeffrey was stretched out across the steps, lying on his side." He also had been shot.

There's an abandoned building to the south of Chrystal's two-flat, but the other nearby residences are occupied. Rogers said that since she's been handing out fliers on this block and others nearby, she's met people who live in fear of speaking out about crime in Englewood.

"I walked down 69th (Street) and Normal (Boulevard) and counted at least 11 houses boarded up," she said. "You see people squatting in them, the boards hanging down and people sitting on the porches. (Legitimate) residents don't want to report that either.

"Then I walked down 69th (Street) and Stewart and I counted three churches; then two more on the next block. And you wonder: Can anybody help here?"

She said that for the last three years, Chrystal had worked full-time at the deli counter of a grocery store in South Shore. She said he was talking to her son, who attends college out of town, about returning to school.

"It's hard growing up in Englewood and not getting caught up in gangs or drugs," Rogers said. "My husband and I have raised our kids there, three have college degrees, two are in college and the youngest is succeeding in high school with high grades."

She said she'd just gotten comfortable with her son taking the bus from their home farther south to his high school in Englewood.

"Now that this has happened, I'll be picking him up every day again," she said. "We're losing too many of our kids. It's time for all of us to wake up, speak up and do something."

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