Remembering Willie Star Scholar and Athlete Still Touches Lives
It's been nearly 15 years, and still they don't forget. They can't. The story has been whispered, cried over and repeated into legend. Willie James Jones. Valedictorian, star athlete, drive-by shooting victim. Though he died at 18, his name echoes out from Lincoln High School, his alma mater, to Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. The San Diego street where he was killed was renamed in his honor. His family founded a charity in his memory. Local alumni from Cornell, the Ivy League university Jones was supposed to attend, raise money for a scholarship in his name. (this portion deleted) The younger Powell viewed Jones as a “rock star.” After the slaying, Powell, who admits he was starting to show an interest in gang life, went another direction. He set out to become a “carbon copy” of Jones. By his senior year at La Jolla High School, Powell had earned a high school fellowship through San Diego's Price Charities, attended a Scripps Institute program for teens, joined an honor society and applied to Cornell.
Just like Willie.
A community's scars Southeastern San Diego is a collection of more than a dozen communities stretching from Mount Hope and Mountain View east to Jamacha and Skyline. Nearly 160,000 people live in the neighborhoods south of state Route 94 and west of state Route 15. More than a third of the community's households have incomes of less than $30,000 a year. Gang violence and crime are constant concerns.
Jones was shot as he left a chaperoned graduation party on Ozark Street on June 17, 1994. A police officer, a pregnant woman and an artist were among several others gunned down on the same street.
This article was shortened. Click link below to read the complete article about Willie James Jones from the UT,
written by: Jennifer Vigil, 2009
http://g.co/maps/p38ha
Just like Willie.
A community's scars Southeastern San Diego is a collection of more than a dozen communities stretching from Mount Hope and Mountain View east to Jamacha and Skyline. Nearly 160,000 people live in the neighborhoods south of state Route 94 and west of state Route 15. More than a third of the community's households have incomes of less than $30,000 a year. Gang violence and crime are constant concerns.
Jones was shot as he left a chaperoned graduation party on Ozark Street on June 17, 1994. A police officer, a pregnant woman and an artist were among several others gunned down on the same street.
This article was shortened. Click link below to read the complete article about Willie James Jones from the UT,
written by: Jennifer Vigil, 2009
http://g.co/maps/p38ha
