Thursday, 4:30 PM
The video must go on
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff
Hours before Jahmol A. Norfleet was shot to death on the sidewalk below his bedroom, he sat down at his church with the Rev. Miniard Culpepper and offered his vision for an antiviolence video.
The video, in the works for months, was to feature Norfleet and other young men from the neighborhood who had recently committed to turning their lives around, Culpepper said. In his own words, Norfleet would chronicle his life, talking about his tangles with the law and about his path to redemption. The finished product was to be a blueprint for other at-risk youths. Filming was to start next Tuesday, the day that Norfleet would have turned 21.
"Oh, it’s going to get made," Culpepper vowed Thursday. "Jahmol may not be here, but the other kids said they will pick it up."
Norfleet and his friends began cultivating the idea for a video in September, said Culpepper, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Roxbury. "They were in his room watching a rap video. I sat and watched too. The next day ... we talked about doing a positive antiviolence video, and we even talked about setting up a production company called H-Block," the pastor said. "Jahmol was adamant about this video."
The project will have to wait at least until after next Wednesday, when Norfleet’s funeral is scheduled. "The kids who were working with him on this, they’re still wondering how his death could have happened," Culpepper said.
Norfleet, a former leader of the H-Block gang in Roxbury, was shot twice in the head Tuesday night outside his grandmother’s house, where he lived. Several police officials, youth workers, and ministers, including the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, had brokered a truce in July between H-Block and the rival Heath Street gang in Jamaica Plain. Since getting out of prison about three months ago, Norfleet served as an integral part in keeping the peace, Brown said.
Norfleet was killed on the first anniversary of the slaying of 17-year-old Heath Street member Carl Searcy, but police say it is too early to determine suspects or the motive.
Thursday afternoon, Kiet Perkins, Norfleet’s aunt, taped stuffed toys to a makeshift memorial on a light pole on Holworthy Street, near where Norfleet died.
"His grandmother, she’s just too tired to say anything," Perkins said. Nearby, several men sat on a porch and gazed at the memorial. Across the street another group of Norfleet’s friends huddled.
"That stuff about H-Block, it doesn’t belong there," said Perkins, pointing to an inscription taped to the pole.
Brian R. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.
