(I wrote this originally in my blog on MySpace. Some of you aren't my friend there, and I figured I should share what was going on with you.
I also wanted to say that domestic abuse doesn't just affect women and children, it affects men too. We must report ANY abuse going on! Don't let another person die from domestic abuse!!!!!)
The rain is falling hard as I am writing this. Autumn's touch can be seen in the trees and felt in the weather. Life should be good, and it is, I suppose.
Except it's hard to find joy when someone you know has been snuffed away from their young life. A young man who had so much potential, who wanted better things for himself, was brutally taken away from his family.
My step-cousin, Dustin Garren Lee, was murdered by his much older GF a few days ago.
Dustin was a good kid, but he made some bad choices in his short life. The fatal one was deciding to be with the woman who would later take his life.
I remember him fondly as an 11 year old boy who liked to ride his bike all over Kannapolis with a cigarette in his mouth. He tried to hide this newly-found and "cool" vice, but we all knew he smoked. He would ride over to my house and play with my kids, who were really young at the time. He was kind and considerate to me, and he never allowed my boys to see him smoke. I knew this kid would have some potential, if someone took him in and gave him the attention and discipline he craved.
A few years passed and I didn't see him again, but I always heard about the mischief he got himself into. It always amazed me how he was following in the footsteps of some of his relatives, and no one tried to teach him better. I wasn't around much to try and be the one to help guide him.
He was more or less the product of his environment and genetics.This does not mean that he deserved what he got: a brutal death.
He wanted to turn his life around and make something of himself. He wanted to make his dad proud of him. He was going to join the army when he turned 18 and get the discipline he sorely needed. That never came to pass.
In the early hours of September 24, Dustin was asleep in his bed. He had gotten tired of all the fighting with his GF and made the courageous decision to leave that situation. She woke him up to fight with him. He was dazed from sleep when he attempted to leave. She rushed up to him and stabbed him in the chest with a butcher knife. The coroner's report confirmed that the blade hit his heart. It didn't kill him immediately. He called 911 for help and stumbled out of the house. He collapsed in the front yard. The police immediately got there to the house. Cradled in the arms of a policeman, he uttered, "Tell my dad I love him," before dying. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
She claimed that she was protecting her dad from Dustin. How was Dustin harming her dad by sleeping? She changed her story several times to police officers and family members. Her story is not going to hold up in the court of law.
She has a history of domestic violence against her. It seems she likes to beat up on her dad and all of her boyfriends. She loved drugs and would beat the hell out of her dad for money to buy them. And SHE was only trying to protect her father from Dustin.
Something's wrong with this!
She is charged with his murder. I don't know when the murder trial starts, but I will be there for moral support for my dad, my step-uncle and the rest of Dustin's family.
That boy didn't deserve any of this. His father didn't deserve this. No matter the status of their relationship at any given time, they loved each other very much.
Dustin will never grow up to live to his potential. He will never be a father. He will never even be a grandfather. This is a cruel knife twist in his family's heart. He will never be forgotten, however.
Tomorrow would have been his birthday. Instead, they are having his wake tomorrow night. Some birthday.
