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Gabourel, The Introvert
Mon, September 27, 2021
And turning back now to Dwayne Gabourel's heart-wrenching demise, we tried to get a sense of the community's loss.

Dwayne, after all, wasn't just a son, he was also a neighbor, a student, and a friend.

Cherisse Halsall walked down Pickstock street this evening to get a sense of the boy raised in the Jungle who neighbors say, kept to his quiet corner. Here's more.

This is the Pickstock Street Basketball court, the community court on Dwayne Gabourel's street. You'd think it'd be a place frequented by the boy who wanted to go pro. But when we visited it this afternoon the kids there told us that that wasn't the case.

Instead Dwayne's circle was quite small, just close friends and family, people like Jeremy Swift who joined others in quietly mourning from the family's yard.

Jeremy Swift AKA "DJ DUTCH", Family Friend
"He don't play with them, he has his own rim in the yard he's basically an introvert a homebody, play ball home, play games, other than that he took care of his little sisters and thing, go to school. He's only 15 years old if he needs to go to the shop he'd ask before he goes."

As you know by now he asked to go on Saturday evening, just a quick stroll to buy one pack of bread from Maulette's Grocery on the corner.

But all that's left there now is a bullet hole, the one made in this Coca Cola poster, it sits right in front of the cashier box and the shopkeeper, who was too fearful to speak, told us that it's a miracle it missed her.

It missed her but it caught Dwayne, a boy who the family says still had milk in his teeth.

Jeremy Swift AKA "DJ DUTCH", Family Friend
"He was only 15 years old, he no even live his life yet, you know, if you ask me very educated child but at 15 years old you could almost say that he behaved like he was eleven. Adolescence didn't kick in as yet."

And, that was Dwayne a kid who if it hadn't been for COVID would have gone from home to school. His death is also being mourned at SJC, his school for the last three years.

Mirta Alicia Peralta, President, Saint John's College
"We are very saddened by the situation, this is the third student in one semester that has been a victim to violence and we want to condemn what is happening with violence on the streets."

"We see that a lot of the victims are boys and for us that is a major concern especially because we are the only all-boys institution in this country and so when we are losing students to gun violence and male students as a matter of fact that is a great concern for us."

Dwayne was a 3rd form business student.

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