Speaker 1: Up next out Loud with Giano called part of the
Speaker 1: game which Demetrius Griffin Jr. Was just fifteen years old
Speaker 1: when he was burned alive on the West Side of Chicago,
Speaker 1: placed in a garbage can, and left to die in
Speaker 1: an alley. The teenager's death was ruled a homicide but
Speaker 1: remains unsolved. Today. I try to get to the bottom
Speaker 1: of what happened. This is outllowed with Giano calledwell, Welcome
Speaker 1: back to allowed with Gianno calledwell. I'm Gianno calledwell and
Speaker 1: on this week's show, I'm talking about violence in Chicago,
Speaker 1: which continues to devastate the city in so many families.
Speaker 1: In fact, over the Loan Fourth of July weekend, at
Speaker 1: least a hundred and eight people were shot in Chicago,
Speaker 1: including two police officers and several children. Two of those
Speaker 1: children were girls aged five and six years old. At
Speaker 1: least seventeen were killed in the shootings, and another person
Speaker 1: was murdered and as stabbing. And just two weeks earlier,
Speaker 1: over Father's Day weekend last month, a hundred and ten
Speaker 1: people were shot in Chicago. Fourteen of them, including five children,
Speaker 1: were killed. That was in less than three days. I
Speaker 1: want to tackle this tragic situation in Chicago by going
Speaker 1: back to one especially horrific case. In fifteen year old
Speaker 1: Demetrius Griffin Jr. Was found dead in a garbage can,
Speaker 1: burned beyond recognition in an alley on the West side
Speaker 1: of Chicago. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said he
Speaker 1: was burned alive following an optopsy law enforcement rulee Demetrius
Speaker 1: death at homicide, but his case remains unsolved. His family
Speaker 1: is unsatisfied, demanding justice for a boy who was described
Speaker 1: as gentle, respectful, and someone who loved dogs. They have
Speaker 1: offered rewards for in nation on the Killer or Killers
Speaker 1: to learn more. My guests on this week's show is
Speaker 1: demetrious aunt Rochelle Sykes, who has continued fighting for a
Speaker 1: nephew and seeking answers. Rochelle is also a woman of
Speaker 1: faith who works at the new Mount Pilgrim Church in Chicago.
Speaker 1: With that, I want to welcome Rochelle Sykes to Outllow
Speaker 1: with Giano Caldwell. Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Now you know I've met you before. I actually interviewed
Speaker 1: you for Fox News Channel and then I pushed the
Speaker 1: Lord Ingram Show to to do the the town hall
Speaker 1: on Chicago violence, and you joined joined us then, and
Speaker 1: then you joined us for a second UM town hall
Speaker 1: the following year. So much has happened in the city
Speaker 1: of Chicago. If you look at the numbers. Some have
Speaker 1: estimated the fourth of July weekend that was over a
Speaker 1: hundred and ten people shot UM so many fatally, I
Speaker 1: believe about eighteen and twenty fatally, including two police officers.
Speaker 1: What the heck is going on in Chicago? I have
Speaker 1: no clue. UM, I see right now, I see if
Speaker 1: you know that your child or your significant other, your
Speaker 1: loved one, your your grandchildren, your children are doing things
Speaker 1: that are not um of legal standards, we need to
Speaker 1: come together and turn these people in. We know that, UM,
Speaker 1: every child is not perfect. Every child is not perfect.
Speaker 1: But when you harbor UM a person that may have
Speaker 1: killed or hurts someone, or you know that they're have
Speaker 1: a thousands and thousands of guns or just a house
Speaker 1: full of gun and ammunition and hanging with the wrong people,
Speaker 1: I'd rather you turn that child in. Dame, you stand
Speaker 1: at the great fight and much to lower down. And
Speaker 1: I a hud agree with you as someone who's from
Speaker 1: the city and whose family has also been impacted by
Speaker 1: the violence in Chicago. I would rather much rather even
Speaker 1: a family member go to jail than to see them
Speaker 1: out committing more crimes and endangering the lives of others.
Speaker 1: So I really appreciate you saying that, and I want
Speaker 1: to I want to get into, um, what happened with
Speaker 1: your your nephew, such a young young life, fifteen years
Speaker 1: old when this happened. Can you take us back to
Speaker 1: that tragic day in when did you know something was wrong?
Speaker 1: And how did you find out Demetrius was no longer
Speaker 1: with us? Well, it goes back to that Saturday morning. Um,
Speaker 1: My mom's birthday was on the nineties. Um, go back
Speaker 1: to that Saturday morning. We were picking her. Um, Me
Speaker 1: and a couple of other church members were picking her
Speaker 1: out to take her out for breakfast to celebrate her
Speaker 1: her birthday because the church's pastor's anniversary was that weekend
Speaker 1: as well. And so when I pulled up to pick
Speaker 1: her up, my sister and my niece was coming out,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Okay, where is she on this early
Speaker 1: in the morning, because my this is not a morning person.
Speaker 1: She said, well, Demeter has didn't come home last night.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, what do you need he
Speaker 1: didn't come home last night, because that made no sense
Speaker 1: because he's never missed a curfew. And she said, well,
Speaker 1: he didn't come home last night. And but some odd
Speaker 1: meason right away to my mind came what I saw
Speaker 1: in the New nes is that they found the body
Speaker 1: of block and a half away in a garbage camp,
Speaker 1: burned beyond recognition. Um. They had said it was a
Speaker 1: small frame. Um man, they said it was a man
Speaker 1: at first. So we went on to breakfast and we ate.
Speaker 1: We sat in eight and what we was uneas everybody
Speaker 1: at the time it was unneas. So we came back,
Speaker 1: we came to the church, We did what we needed
Speaker 1: to do at the church and bringing that by time
Speaker 1: we got back to the house, he would have showed
Speaker 1: up when we would know his whereabout. And when we
Speaker 1: came back to the house, she said she hasn't seen him.
Speaker 1: No one had seen him. And so um, I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know it's time that we contact the police because
Speaker 1: this is not of his nature. And I did speak
Speaker 1: to someone at the police station. They and they asked
Speaker 1: me some questions about you know, how tall was he,
Speaker 1: how big was he? And and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: And then UM, the first thing I had spoken was
Speaker 1: teld me, well, I think you wouldn't need to get
Speaker 1: some gentraal records. UM. Amberler did go up. I did
Speaker 1: um authorize for them to pick up his central records.
Speaker 1: And at that point it was a way. Yet we waited.
Speaker 1: UM that was that was out. Saturday we waited. Sunday
Speaker 1: we attended church. UM we helped our pastor celebrate um
Speaker 1: his anniversary because that's what we would have done naturally. UM,
Speaker 1: and we just prayed that the outcome wasn't the outcome
Speaker 1: that we were feeling it love. UM. We did not
Speaker 1: tell pastor. UM. We did tell one of the associate
Speaker 1: ministers so that someone at the church wouldn't know what
Speaker 1: was going on because the meet was also a member
Speaker 1: of the church and baptized and UM Christian at New
Speaker 1: Mount killed me. So we didn't tell pastor. UM. Monday
Speaker 1: came around. I didn't let him know that Monday, and
Speaker 1: UM he was a little bit distraught about it. UM
Speaker 1: about three something, UM I got calm um to come
Speaker 1: that the police was there and my time I got
Speaker 1: there that you will leave it and they had identified
Speaker 1: him UM by his dental records stepped out? Was him?
Speaker 1: I mean if the house was full of people and
Speaker 1: polsal screaming when I when I walked up, folks we screaming.
Speaker 1: You can just hear people screaming from outside. And to
Speaker 1: say that when I say that, I pulled up in
Speaker 1: a car to a house where the door was closed
Speaker 1: and I can hear screaming, you need to No one
Speaker 1: heard him scream in that alley. He was birth alive.
Speaker 1: No one heard him scream in that alley. Are we
Speaker 1: going about our business so much that we don't recognize
Speaker 1: when there's something wrong and to report it? Are we
Speaker 1: that afraid that we cannot report when the client is
Speaker 1: going on. When you see something out there, you don't
Speaker 1: say anything you see something wrong. If you saw a
Speaker 1: young person walking down the street with a handgun in
Speaker 1: the hand, you wouldn't call the police. That's the part
Speaker 1: that disturbing to me is that we are allowing them
Speaker 1: to take over, and then they are getting younger and
Speaker 1: younger people to do these clients because they're getting a
Speaker 1: flap on the rim. At some point we have to
Speaker 1: stand up and say enough is enough. And it starts
Speaker 1: you're you're absolutely correct. And every time I hear this story,
Speaker 1: it really brings tears to the eyes of so many
Speaker 1: that Loria Ingram heard the story and she began crying
Speaker 1: on air. Um, I think that is it's just deplurable.
Speaker 1: What has happened to your nephew and what has happened
Speaker 1: in the city of Chicago, and it seems to be
Speaker 1: no answers to what's going on one in fact, things
Speaker 1: have gotten worse, not better. They've gotten worse. And you
Speaker 1: wonder and you mentioned you said, you know, they get
Speaker 1: a slap on a risk and that goes back to
Speaker 1: the County prosecutor's office, who's allowed over twenty five people
Speaker 1: off without charging them. And these were felony cases, some
Speaker 1: of them include murder. Knowing what happened to your your nephew,
Speaker 1: how does that make you feel? It makes me sick
Speaker 1: to my stomach because one of those people could have
Speaker 1: been the person that murdered my nephew. I have no answers,
Speaker 1: I have no closure. I've had no sleep. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have nothing. Nothing we had we went from we
Speaker 1: didn't even have a funeral. There was nothing to say
Speaker 1: goodbye too. They met us at the at the funeral
Speaker 1: I mean at the cemetery with the casket. That's how
Speaker 1: we said Goodbut we had a memorial service and it
Speaker 1: was over seven. Well here, but it's not the same.
Speaker 1: That's not the same. It's different when there's someone that
Speaker 1: passes yea um um elder age and someone that passes
Speaker 1: that has been sick, because then you get too to
Speaker 1: sit with that person and you get to um talk
Speaker 1: with that person and get to you know, let them
Speaker 1: know that it's okay. But when someone is matched from
Speaker 1: you with no means of an explanation of m it's
Speaker 1: a hard thing to deal with. My family is torn apart,
Speaker 1: and I for sure there's other families like mine with
Speaker 1: no no resolution, no answer, and one't why this is
Speaker 1: continually to happen. And then some people won't say anything
Speaker 1: or do anything until it hit your front door. You
Speaker 1: need to start thinking to now, you need to start
Speaker 1: doing something now. Anybody in my family know that I
Speaker 1: will turn them in without a doubt. I will have
Speaker 1: the stuff without a doubt. I'd rather you be alive
Speaker 1: and locked up, and then my whole family know through
Speaker 1: the misery of having to put you in the ground,
Speaker 1: not knowing what happened to you and wishing we could
Speaker 1: have done something new. And and with that being the case,
Speaker 1: as you just as you just said, you would rather
Speaker 1: someone go to jail than throw their lives away by
Speaker 1: shooting someone else and then possibly in and up dead themselves.
Speaker 1: You would rather them go to jail. And I understand that.
Speaker 1: And let me ask you this question. And I know
Speaker 1: that your nephew you were responsible for him. Was his
Speaker 1: mom not around? Was his dad not around? What was
Speaker 1: the situation there? No, his his dad was around. His
Speaker 1: dad recently died. Um of Ana. Yeah, I think it
Speaker 1: was from a bloken heart, but they will around. But
Speaker 1: he was my only nephew, so he's the teeth baby. UM.
Speaker 1: When Demetrius was born, he was pretty um I think
Speaker 1: he weighed a little bit less than three pounds and
Speaker 1: he had these beautiful bluish gray eyes. So he became
Speaker 1: everyone's baby because he was the baby of the family
Speaker 1: for a long time. And then he was so little
Speaker 1: for his age, so he was everybody's baby. So even
Speaker 1: though I did a lot of things for him, everybody
Speaker 1: actually did a lot of things for him, and UM
Speaker 1: took they just took him into his wing because he
Speaker 1: was a lovable kid. He had an old soul um.
Speaker 1: He loved animals, He did things for the native he
Speaker 1: saw someone carrying that he would want to help and
Speaker 1: take their spains in the house. Just the type of
Speaker 1: kid he loved. Now I'm not he was a good kid,
Speaker 1: not involved in any of the gangs or any of
Speaker 1: the trouble in Chicago, which typically when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: the way people were shot. Of the reason why is
Speaker 1: because they were involved in gangs, they hung out with
Speaker 1: the wrong people. And certainly these days that doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker 1: It's not the same thing. It's not an affiliation thing.
Speaker 1: A kid was twenty well, young man twenty years old
Speaker 1: on the l just the other day, was a student
Speaker 1: of the University of Chicago. A bullet shot through the
Speaker 1: train station window and paralyzed them, and his parents just
Speaker 1: recently had to make the tough choice of taking him
Speaker 1: off of a ventilator. It's happening to a lot of
Speaker 1: people in the city of Chicago all over, and it's
Speaker 1: not just frustrating. It's become a war zone. You don't
Speaker 1: know if you're gonna you enter, you may not survive
Speaker 1: and leave. It's horrendous where you need younger and younger
Speaker 1: killing gun Why absolutely, you're correct to ask that question,
Speaker 1: and more importantly, why is the Cook County Prosecutors Office
Speaker 1: letting people off the hook with a slap on the
Speaker 1: wrist for doing serious crimes creating more creaking, more havoc
Speaker 1: in the communities. Now I want to ask you. I've
Speaker 1: read that your nephew, Demetrius, he was murdered by other
Speaker 1: black kids because he refused to join a gang. But
Speaker 1: some have said in the media that, um, they don't
Speaker 1: really know and the case just remains unsolved. Do you
Speaker 1: have any information as to the motive of why this
Speaker 1: would happen to your nephew. No, I do not. It
Speaker 1: may know, it makes it makes no sense because Demetrius,
Speaker 1: he was fifteen, but he looked to be nine. He
Speaker 1: was only ninety seven pounds. He was only four nine
Speaker 1: in heights, so he was a little for his age.
Speaker 1: He had a he had a major problem with sitting
Speaker 1: in with his age group. So because he didn't he
Speaker 1: fit with them, he played with kids that are younger
Speaker 1: than he was because he were more of their size.
Speaker 1: When he was growing up, there's nothing that you could
Speaker 1: not knock on my mother's door and say, well, Demetrius
Speaker 1: did this or Demetris did that. There was nothing that
Speaker 1: you could knock on her doing to tell her never
Speaker 1: had any problems with Demetrius and stood never had to
Speaker 1: go up there for him, never had I've never had
Speaker 1: up there with him. When he got in high school.
Speaker 1: I'm the one that had him in road. He was
Speaker 1: only there two weeks. I've never got a call about
Speaker 1: that because think he did not play that. My thing
Speaker 1: is Demetrius was a little bit scary because he was smaller,
Speaker 1: and like I said, he played with smaller kids because
Speaker 1: of his weight and height. So when they say that
Speaker 1: they wanted him in a game, and I my only
Speaker 1: thing that comes to my mind is for what he
Speaker 1: can't do anything. He's too scary and he know his
Speaker 1: t t A is not going to play that. He
Speaker 1: never drank he and he never smoked any marijuana or
Speaker 1: didn't even drug. So if they were trying to recruit him,
Speaker 1: what would be the purpose of recruiting him, and why,
Speaker 1: what would be that purpose? And so that because he's
Speaker 1: little work, you think he would get off, but he
Speaker 1: wouldn't bloom again we because he knows that's not what
Speaker 1: Lee is still into him. We need to pause here
Speaker 1: for a break. We will be back. You know, it's
Speaker 1: it's one thing that kills some one, but this was
Speaker 1: done in such a gruesome way, burning Demetrius alive live,
Speaker 1: leaving him to dine a garbage can in the alley.
Speaker 1: This is just next level of torturous. There was no
Speaker 1: one in his family that was involved in anything that
Speaker 1: they were trying to um to respond to and trying
Speaker 1: to get to my that was beloved in your family.
Speaker 1: There was nothing like that or anything, um that you
Speaker 1: can think of that that possibly could have occurred in
Speaker 1: my immediate family. And as far as I know, we
Speaker 1: have no gang members. And if it is, it's something
Speaker 1: that I don't know. Um, I don't have any brothers,
Speaker 1: so it's just me and my sister, and I have
Speaker 1: a step sister, and UM, my sons are not gang related.
Speaker 1: My sons don't even hang on the corner because they
Speaker 1: know that. I don't allow that. I cannot imagine what
Speaker 1: it could have been, or I mean, I've heard a
Speaker 1: bunch of things. I heard it. I've heard it was
Speaker 1: gang gang, you know, they wanted him to join a game.
Speaker 1: Then I heard it was some some some um skinheads.
Speaker 1: I heard something about that, and then somebody said he
Speaker 1: might have saw something. None of it makes sense. Nothing
Speaker 1: that you can say would make sense to take someone
Speaker 1: life by burning them alive. Nothing you could say would
Speaker 1: make sense of me hearing this kid yelling for help
Speaker 1: and me not doing anything. None of that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Nowhere around does that make sense. And that's why. On
Speaker 1: the corner of Cortez and Centrol there's a bench, there's
Speaker 1: a big red cross, there's a book box for books
Speaker 1: for children. We keep that corner clean because you're gonna
Speaker 1: remember that this kid was over here and you said nothing.
Speaker 1: We make it clean. I keep it clean, I weeds.
Speaker 1: I keep that clean. So children can go and sit
Speaker 1: on that bench, they can get in a book out
Speaker 1: that book box. They can feel comfortable sitting right there
Speaker 1: on that corner. Nothing of it, no, nothing makes sense.
Speaker 1: All is killing, moll is shooting, shooting up in the air.
Speaker 1: What would be the purpose of that. Get a job.
Speaker 1: My grandmother her in her grade now because she is
Speaker 1: on a plantation, and what we had to go through
Speaker 1: to be where we are now, and then look pulling
Speaker 1: on that back from us. Yes, and I absolutely agree
Speaker 1: with what you're saying, do you feel any level of
Speaker 1: frustration with the law enforcement or the politicians that were
Speaker 1: around during this time. I think Rama Manuel's in office
Speaker 1: during this era. Yes, I do. The superintendent at that
Speaker 1: time and the mayor at that time, we contact them
Speaker 1: thirty days. I had thirty days of confirmation numbers where
Speaker 1: I had called three one one. We have yet to
Speaker 1: hear from either one of them. Are you here? Is
Speaker 1: I kid you not? Let me tell you just I
Speaker 1: just want to make sure I'm hearing you right, you're
Speaker 1: saying Mayor Rama Manuel and the superintendent of police at
Speaker 1: that time. Neither one of them followed up with you there.
Speaker 1: Their office is no one touch base. No, we've never
Speaker 1: heard from that. And at that time I did contact
Speaker 1: Kim Fox's office because I just needed some help or
Speaker 1: where to the county prosecutor. Kim Fox is who you're
Speaker 1: referring to, and I was told that they couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything until there's an arrest. They couldn't help me until
Speaker 1: there was an arrest. That's what I was told by them.
Speaker 1: I sent a letter to the White House to our
Speaker 1: former president. I got a letter back. I didn't send
Speaker 1: a letter requesting any money from him. I needed some help.
Speaker 1: I needed help. I didn't know. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know what to do. This is the first this, this
Speaker 1: is the first trinity in our family. I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do. I need help. I sent back. Then
Speaker 1: I got a letter back from the White House. Then
Speaker 1: they don't do donation. That's not what I asked you for.
Speaker 1: I asked you for help because at that point, we
Speaker 1: didn't know if it was a serial killer out here,
Speaker 1: because who does that to a young person, a child?
Speaker 1: So we didn't know if it was a serial killer
Speaker 1: out here. We've had a go find me page, We've
Speaker 1: had that open too. I did get a foundation set
Speaker 1: up for him to help with maybe getting detectives, just
Speaker 1: to help with the justice for that, and then to
Speaker 1: try to help other young people. Barry ten thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and five of that came from Laura. Laura Ingram donated
Speaker 1: to the to the foundation. Yeah, yes she did. She
Speaker 1: she donated five thousand dollars. But my my, my mom
Speaker 1: always say you have and and and and I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not a racist person or anything like that. And
Speaker 1: I know people donate to things that they want to
Speaker 1: donate to. And I just you have. My mom was
Speaker 1: very upset because the two little girls that came up
Speaker 1: missing in Indiana. And my heart went out Today's family
Speaker 1: because I know how they felt. I know how the
Speaker 1: family felt, because you know, we've lost our loved one too.
Speaker 1: But her thing was is that they had got the
Speaker 1: FBI and and then they had got all of this
Speaker 1: money from I guess the state, and here he is.
Speaker 1: We're out here, we're passing out flyers. Were having fund
Speaker 1: raisers on Mother's Day. We stand out there on the corner.
Speaker 1: We give out Mother's Day guilt, to give out Father's
Speaker 1: Day gifts. We have a um A community block club
Speaker 1: every year for the kids. We give our book bags
Speaker 1: and clothes and persons and thinks of that nature. They
Speaker 1: have or found that they have um A college thing
Speaker 1: at at New Mount Pilgen, where Demitrian was a member.
Speaker 1: We give out stuff, look the kids that are going
Speaker 1: away to college. We do all of that. And it
Speaker 1: seems as though that because of the color of his skin,
Speaker 1: this is her feeling and I and I understand, she
Speaker 1: seemed like it's being fresh um brushed up under the
Speaker 1: rug because it doesn't get that same priority toy and
Speaker 1: part of the reason for that, and this was very
Speaker 1: gruesome um event, obviously, the murder of your nephew. Chicago.
Speaker 1: The politicians there, and I'm sure you would agree, have
Speaker 1: completely failed the citizens. And it's become a weekly or
Speaker 1: daily occurrence of bullets piercing through skin and that's all
Speaker 1: it is to them, it seems to be, so why
Speaker 1: do why is it that people continue to support the
Speaker 1: same the Kim Fox, the Lordy life to the world,
Speaker 1: the ones who aren't making a difference. Is these politicians?
Speaker 1: Why do people continue to support them in the city
Speaker 1: of Chicago knowing that they have not gotten any results.
Speaker 1: Could it possibly be not necessarily that they're getting so
Speaker 1: much support. Is that so many people are desensipized and
Speaker 1: they don't support at all. So that makes the small
Speaker 1: amount that do support things so large because there are
Speaker 1: so many people that do not vote. There are so
Speaker 1: many people that do not vote. Because I talked to
Speaker 1: people that have not voted. My vote don't make no difference.
Speaker 1: But how you know your vote don't make no different
Speaker 1: Your one vote could be the vote that made the difference.
Speaker 1: They feel that there is no change, They feel that
Speaker 1: things are still gonna be the same. It's going to
Speaker 1: be the same thing. There's going to be people making
Speaker 1: decisions for low income people that are not low income.
Speaker 1: There's a there's people making decisions for people that have
Speaker 1: five and six people living in their households and they're
Speaker 1: living in a mansion. They want people to make decisions
Speaker 1: that live the life that they live. You go on
Speaker 1: the West side of Chicago, you can ride down Madison Street.
Speaker 1: Tell me how many groceries, schools for food markets you
Speaker 1: see in the black neighborhoods. Yeah, their food, their food, deserts.
Speaker 1: You got corncus need I mean, what restaurants do you have?
Speaker 1: I mean they feel that you're taking away everything from them,
Speaker 1: So why should they vote. It won't make a difference.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Rochelle's Sykes, who's fifteen year old nephew
Speaker 1: was tragically murdered in Chicago, who got much more with
Speaker 1: her on the unsolved case. In the violence in Chicago
Speaker 1: more broadly, right after break it's not making sense at
Speaker 1: all the policy decisions that are being made. It's not
Speaker 1: making sense, and it's actually making so many other people
Speaker 1: in the community less safe in the city of Chicago.
Speaker 1: It's it's beyond troubling, is disgusting, and I wish things
Speaker 1: could could change, but it doesn't seem as though there's
Speaker 1: been as much value on the black lives that matter
Speaker 1: and the folks who just like you mentioned you said, hey,
Speaker 1: these people are if you're walking down the street with
Speaker 1: a gun, that someone needs to call the police, if
Speaker 1: you know who the shoot is, they need to be
Speaker 1: turned in. Those black lives matter, and if you if
Speaker 1: you don't, If you don't, then you're obviously saying, um,
Speaker 1: the antithesis of it that they don't matter in that case.
Speaker 1: So it really needs to be outraged full scale, not
Speaker 1: just with the people like you who you're you had
Speaker 1: this beloved nephew who died in a very gruesome way,
Speaker 1: who was murdered in a grucive way. But everyone needs
Speaker 1: to live their voice up. It needs to be a
Speaker 1: complete community that refused to capitulate to the gang members
Speaker 1: who want to take over their neighborhoods. Absolutely, would you
Speaker 1: would you agree with that? I agree with that, And
Speaker 1: then they shouldn't have to live in their house and
Speaker 1: be afraid that if I turned you in, they're gonna
Speaker 1: tell you I turned you in, and then they're coming
Speaker 1: after me or I turned you in and you get
Speaker 1: to court and because the system is over proud, and
Speaker 1: they let you go, which has happened a number of
Speaker 1: times in Cook County, especially in the Cook County Jail
Speaker 1: during the COVID area. A lot of folks were let
Speaker 1: out who went on to commit crimes. And that's not
Speaker 1: just in Cook County, but that's across the country. People
Speaker 1: were let out and they went on to commit other crimes,
Speaker 1: including killing people. You know, I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: because I know you're a woman of faith and you
Speaker 1: work for the new Mount Pilgrim Church in Chicago, how
Speaker 1: is your faith factored into how you've dealt with demetrius death.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing that had count me. Um I
Speaker 1: Um was once asked and I had to look at
Speaker 1: myself and I did What did I forgive the person
Speaker 1: that killed the Matris? And I have to be honest,
Speaker 1: Even though I believe in God, I know God as
Speaker 1: ahead of my life, I don't forgive them. I feel
Speaker 1: sorry for them because there has to be something seriously
Speaker 1: wrong with you to do what you did and be
Speaker 1: able to sleep at night, because like I said, I
Speaker 1: haven't slept in five years. I leapt straight through a
Speaker 1: night in five years. I can hear it that look
Speaker 1: what calling my name? I can hear him calling. So
Speaker 1: I feel sorry for you because there's no way you
Speaker 1: can be resting, and for everybody that hurts him and
Speaker 1: didn't say nothing. There's no way you could be wrestling.
Speaker 1: I wasn't there and I ain't resting. But if it
Speaker 1: wasn't for God, I don't think I would have bade
Speaker 1: it through this far. I don't even sit on that corner,
Speaker 1: poor weeds. I don't think I could put the events together.
Speaker 1: That's God in me, and I knew that this outcome
Speaker 1: has something, something bigger. I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but I know it does. Now. What would you tell
Speaker 1: Demetrius if you can speak to him today, in this moment.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry T T let you down. I am so
Speaker 1: sorry because I always told him I would take care
Speaker 1: of him. I always told if you t T will
Speaker 1: always be here for him. And I feel like I
Speaker 1: have failed him, and I would I. I just would
Speaker 1: say I am so sorry because you had to be
Speaker 1: through some tremendous pain for that to happen to you,
Speaker 1: and I am sorry. And if if I could trade
Speaker 1: places with him. I would trade places with him right down,
Speaker 1: because I don't know what he had was capable that
Speaker 1: could have been the next president. I am sorry. I
Speaker 1: would I am so sorry, And if I could trade places,
Speaker 1: I would trade places like I would beg he ever
Speaker 1: looked to just take me and let him go. That
Speaker 1: is very tough to hear. But I can tell you
Speaker 1: right now you did not fail your nephew, not one bit.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure if he was here, he would thank
Speaker 1: you for continuing to fight on in his name, like
Speaker 1: there's so many other young people in Chicago who lost
Speaker 1: their lives and they didn't have Rochelle Sykes too, to
Speaker 1: chase down the police if you will, to try to
Speaker 1: get answers and work with politicians to try to get
Speaker 1: something done, solve solve this, this hainous, hainous crime. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure he would be thankful for you being there
Speaker 1: for him and in the family as you have been.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah, but it hurts so bad, I mean
Speaker 1: especially I don't know if it's the not knowing or
Speaker 1: do I really want enough? And I just my heart
Speaker 1: hurts to see all these young babies, you know, they
Speaker 1: don't know one day from another riding in the back
Speaker 1: of a car, and the next thing you know, they're
Speaker 1: they're they're dead. I mean, you've got all these young
Speaker 1: mothers and fathers and I don't know where the term
Speaker 1: because you know you you took in my breath away.
Speaker 1: You took in my breath away. I mean, to give
Speaker 1: birth to a child, it's not an easy thing, and
Speaker 1: deniting raising one is even harder. And then someone else
Speaker 1: that has no care about life just can walk past
Speaker 1: and take all of that away from a person when
Speaker 1: they killed. Do they know how prominent that is. You're
Speaker 1: hurting the person you killed, You're hurting all the other
Speaker 1: people who left behind, even your own family when they
Speaker 1: catch you. You got Mama at the courthouse crying, Grandma
Speaker 1: at the courthouse crying. We got cousins and stuff, gotta
Speaker 1: send you money, with money on your books, you got
Speaker 1: the person that was murdered. Family don't know how to
Speaker 1: put stuff together, don't know how to get it together.
Speaker 1: I don't want how to make decisions from that moment forward,
Speaker 1: because all they knew was their child, their grandchild, their cousin,
Speaker 1: their nephews. They need to know the extent of that
Speaker 1: one decision that they made. It's not hurting that person
Speaker 1: you killed, it's hurting me everybody else because now this
Speaker 1: community is to us. Now, this lady get to go
Speaker 1: to the grocery store to get her groceries because somebody
Speaker 1: killed somebody on the corner. Now you've got a whole
Speaker 1: lady that I can't get food in her own home.
Speaker 1: He had to go sit on her porch, can't stay
Speaker 1: play out in the streets. Something's gotta give. We gotta
Speaker 1: stand off of something because we're falling down for everything. Yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: do you think you've ever run for public office? No,
Speaker 1: I'm honest. I'm honest, and unfortunately I might not have
Speaker 1: a good filter owner on my mouth, but I'm honest.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell it like it is. If it ain't right,
Speaker 1: it ain't right. Yes, ma'am, and and and and I'm
Speaker 1: with you. And I want to thank you for sharing
Speaker 1: demetrius story. And as you fight on, um, I definitely
Speaker 1: want my listeners to be involved in the fight with you.
Speaker 1: So if you will let us know where can people
Speaker 1: donate or help in other ways to find justice for Demetrius. Well, Um,
Speaker 1: they can go into any US banks and give them
Speaker 1: justice for Demetrius Griffin Jr. He has an account set
Speaker 1: up there. UM there's also a god funding page. We
Speaker 1: would love to have a a community youth center where
Speaker 1: we teach life skills till UM ages five to eighteen,
Speaker 1: help them apply for college and make sure they get
Speaker 1: into make sure they get a g D. If they
Speaker 1: need tutoring, if they need counseling. To um help provide
Speaker 1: all of that for them. Um, they can do that,
Speaker 1: or they can just if they want to just send
Speaker 1: a check they can always then one to New Mount
Speaker 1: Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, but make it out to Justice
Speaker 1: for Demetrius and the addresses forty three oh one West
Speaker 1: Washington Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, six o six to food. They
Speaker 1: can do either you those and anything will help. And
Speaker 1: its Metrius, uh and you want to spell it for
Speaker 1: folks how its spelled out? D E M E, T
Speaker 1: R I E S and Griffin g R I F
Speaker 1: F I N jor Okay, Well, we're gonna be praying
Speaker 1: for you certainly, and and and hope people donate to
Speaker 1: the to the cause especially, but we really appreciate your strength.
Speaker 1: I'm certain that your nephew is really, really thankful for
Speaker 1: what you've been able to do in keeping the family
Speaker 1: together and keeping his memory well and alive. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining me on out Live with Gianna
Speaker 1: called well Okay, thank you so much. I want to
Speaker 1: thank with your fights again for a powerful interview. If
Speaker 1: you enjoying the show, please leave us a reviewer with
Speaker 1: us with five stars on Apple Podcast. If you have
Speaker 1: any questions for me, please email me at out loud
Speaker 1: at gingristre sixty dot com and I'll try to answer
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Speaker 1: You can also find me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and
Speaker 1: parlor at Giano Caldwell. And if you're interested in learning
Speaker 1: more about my story, please pick up a copy of
Speaker 1: my bestselling book title Taken for Granted, How Conservatism Can
Speaker 1: Win Back to the Americans at Liberalism Failed Special Thanks
Speaker 1: to our producer John Cassio, researcher Aaron Klingman, and executive
Speaker 1: producers Debbie Myers and speaker New Gingridge, part of the
Speaker 1: Gingrids three sixty network