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The only thing many found more shocking than the shooting of 17-year-old Kydaryune Curry was the reason the perpetrators gave police: a perceived act of disrespect when Curry wouldn’t tell another teen his name.
Now organizers planning a candlelight memorial Monday night hope the popular teen’s memory prevents other youths from using violence to settle grudges over disrespect.
The memorial starts at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the parking lot of Charlotte United Christian Academy, at 7640 Wallace Road.
“Our goal is to speak to our youth on what respect is and how it is earned and not given,” said Judy Williams, founder of the group Mothers of Murdered Offspring, which is hosting the event. “K.C.’s mom will be in attendance and will hopefully speak hope to those discouraged over the death of her son.”
Curry was a junior at Charlotte United and had planned to pursue a career in automotive technology, maybe even working on NHRA drag racers, his mother said.
Instead, police said, five teens mobilized to fight Curry on Sept. 15 after deciding he had shown one of them disrespect in front of a girl a day earlier. One boy brought a gun and Curry was shot, bleeding to death along the same quiet street where neighbors frequently saw him tinkering with his souped-up BMW.
Charged with first-degree murder are Bruck Birega Fekadu, 16; Sheldon Gregory, 17; Dedrick Lorenzo McKenzie, 16; Jeremy Elijah Pate, 19; and Samuel Jerome Walker Jr., 18. Police say Curry didn’t know the people accused of killing him.
All five suspects were in Mecklenburg jail late Sunday. Search warrants identified McKenzie as the gunman in the evening shooting in Bradfield Farms, a subdivision near the Cabarrus County border.
The public is invited to the memorial.
