Someone knows who shot and killed Toni Brooks’ son, an aspiring 18-year-old hip-hop dancer liked by almost everyone.
But nearly five months after Derrek Ward’s death, an arrest hasn’t been made.
A few days after Ward was gunned down early Dec. 2 outside an Aurora party – possibly by gang members – the dozens of people at the party quit talking to police.
A witness to another murder was killed a day after Ward died, silencing almost any hope his family had of bringing the young man’s killer to justice.
So the family waits.
“We hear stories all the time about the person who did it,” Brooks said one recent evening in her Montbello home. “I just hope somebody comes forward with something pertinent.”
Police aren’t saying much about what happened that night.
Aurora police spokeswoman Shannon Lucy said investigators are still working the case and that it is now before an Arapahoe County grand jury, which can force witnesses to testify.
Ward, a Gateway High School senior, was at a Denver Nuggets game Dec 1. An accomplished dancer who once performed during a game, he was there that night to study another dancer, to learn to pump up the crowd.
After the game, he and some friends went to a party on South Xanadu Way. Ward was dancing when someone got mad at him, his mother said, and an argument ensued. So Ward and several others left. As he was going to the car, he was shot. Police found him lying on the street.
He died three days later.
“The thing that makes me so mad is that everyone at the party knows what happened, but they won’t say nothing,” said Ward’s 16-year-old sister, Jasmine Williams.
The days before Ward died were peculiar, those who know him say. He became very affectionate to his family.
Ward had a premonition the day before he died as he was walking to catch the school bus with his good friend Hakeem Brooks, no relation to Ward’s mother. Ward just wasn’t himself, Hakeem recalled, adding that Ward had quit “messing” with his friends.
“He told me, ‘Something’s not right. Today or tomorrow, something is going to happen,”‘ Hakeem said.
Another incident was an essay against gang violence that Ward had written as part of his dance group, Solid Confidence. He wrote that he didn’t want to be the next victim found dead lying on the street.
Tramaine Duncan, 17, was with Ward the night he was shot. Duncan was in the driver’s seat when Ward was getting into the car. The shooter fired from the car’s driver’s side, Duncan recalled.
“It was by the grace of God that I didn’t get hit,” he said.
Duncan had hung out with gang members, smoked pot and “done stupid things” before the shooting, he said. But since then, Duncan says he has changed.
He joined a youth choir, became a member of the Future Business Leaders of America and joined a black leadership group at Overland High School.
The high school junior says he plans to go to college and major in business management. He wants to run a major company one day.
“Ever since that happened, I’ve been more focused,” Duncan said. “I’m not the same person I used to be.
“It’s like you don’t notice something you’re doing is bad until something bad happens.”
Ward’s family takes comfort knowing his death has had a positive impact.
“It makes me feel like my brother didn’t die in vain,” Williams said. “He died on the street to show everyone that is not the road to go down.”
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
