Dallas police are investigating the murder of a 17-year-old Lincoln High School student killed on Saturday, just one week after a Kimball High School student was gunned down.
Police said Demaryae Hill-Young was found at the 2800 block of Burger Avenue around 2:35 a.m. Saturday after reports of gunshots being fired in the area.
When police arrived at the scene, they found Hill-Young suffering from a gunshot wound. Paramedics attempted to save his life, but he died from his injuries.
NBC 5 spoke exclusively with his aunt, who’d just taken him in for a fresh start. LaToya Stovall has no biological children of her own. This summer, she gained custody of her nephew, Demaryae Hill-Young. She admitted there were some growing pains, but she said they were on their way to a new normal.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
“You’re coming into a structured environment, and 'You’re not going to tell me what you’re going to do.' 'You’re going to listen to my rules,'” Stovall said. “This was for me and new for him.”
Demaryae enrolled at Lincoln High School, joined the football team, and earned good grades. Stovall said she’d just received the keys to what was supposed to be their new two-bedroom apartment.
“I needed a bigger place because he was there with me. I literally Friday picked up the keys to our new place,” she said. “I had surprised him with everything that he wanted from the store, and everything was there waiting on him to open the door and see what was there for him.”
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
She said the room now sits empty. On Saturday, she received the call that her nephew had been shot and killed while staying overnight at a friend’s house in Dallas. The details are unclear, and Dallas police are still investigating. Stovall said she remembers the last conversation she had with Demaryae.
“He said, ‘I love you, aunty.’ I told him, ‘I love you too,’ and those were the last words we exchanged with each other,” she said.
He was known by community leaders who told NBC 5 he’d recently opened up to the idea of being mentored. Untruan Grant and Jay Holland are part of Dallas’ Violence Interrupters. They said they were just grappling with the shooting death of Kimbell High School student and football player David Washington. They want additional community resources to address the root of violence.
“To focus on the traumas. To focus on all of these things that are really keeping them from being able to be their better selves,” said Grant, founder of Learn With Train LLC.
Stovall's life will never be the same. Still, there’s one more thing she wants to ensure happens.
“He’s still going to receive his diploma,” she said. “And I’m going to be the one that’s going to receive it for him.”
In a separate incident, on Monday, Sept. 9, a ninth-grade student at South Oak Cliff High School was grazed by a stray bullet at South Oak Cliff Renaissance Park across the street from the campus. The shooting prompted a large emergency response from Dallas police and led to a delay in the school's dismissal until the area was cleared.
The homicide of Demaryae Hill-Young is still under investigation, and the police department did not reveal any details about who may have killed him.
