< Back to front page Text size – +

Patrick visits family of slain Dorchester youth

E-mail|Link May 11, 2010 01:58 PM

By John R. Ellement and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick today visited the Dorchester home of a 14-year-old honors student who was fatally shot on Saturday in Boston.

"I saw a family whose hearts are broken,'' Patrick said after leaving the home of Jaewon Martin. "They have a deep faith in God. That will help, but they are hurting right now. I just wanted to come by and tell them, as a parent, that I am grieving with them...There is a gaping hole in their hearts right now.''

Martin's mother and grandmother said after the visit that they were grateful for the governor's presence and welcomed the “tight hug” he gave them when he entered their home.

“I appreciated it very much,’’ said Nicole Martin, Jaewon’s mother. “It showed me that a lot of people cared about what happened to my child… I didn’t know my son could touch all these people even though they never met him.’’

The death of Martin, an eighth-grader who would have graduated from the James P. Timilty Middle School this spring shocked the city. One of Martin's longtime friends was also wounded in the shooting.

Police found Martin and his friend when they responded to a report of a person shot at about 3:41 p.m. Saturday near 944 Parker St., at the border of the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury neighborhoods.

When asked how she is faring since the death of her son, a crime that law enforcement officials have called the senseless act of a coward, Nicole Martin said she now fears sunrise.

“I just hate waking up,’’ she said in a quiet voice as she found to control her emotions. “I hate the sunlight. I don’t like the day time.’’

Patrick was accompanied on his visit by the Rev. William Dickerson, pastor of the Greater Love Tabernacle Church in Dorchester and by the Rev. Ivan Cutts, pastor of the Greater Boston Church of God in Christ in Taunton.

Dickerson, who once taught Nicole Martin when she was a student at the Timilty school, will now officiate at her son’s funeral to be held at Dickerson’s church on Thursday.

Dickerson also officiated at the services for Cedirick Steele, a cousin of Jaewon Martin, who was murdered in Boston in 2007.

He said Patrick’s visit was about compassion, not about politics. The governor, Dickerson said, also visited with the family of Steven Odom, a 13-year-old who was shot to death in 2007 and who had attended the Timilty like Jaewon Martin.

Patrick, a Democrat, is running for re-election this year.

“This governor has always shown that he has a sense of humanity,’’ Dickerson said after the visit. “It’s not about an election year. This governor cares, he is concerned and he wanted to reach out to her (Nicole Martin) in a tangible way. The family appreciated that kind of care and concern.’’

Police and the family are asking for help finding the killer, the Globe reports today.