Marching for Adrian

On March 19th, Adrian Holiday, 26,
was senselessly killed in the parking
lot at Deer Run apartments in
Newport News. Father Jeremy, with
family and friends, have taken to the
streets in a series of marches
to remember Adrian, and to
find answers.

On Thursday afternoon, March 19^th, I left my home in Newport News, VA and headed to Williamsburg for my Professional Development class at William and Mary. The routine was simple. I was home that afternoon and left my neighborhood, took the right turn on to Shields Road, which I followed to Jefferson Ave., one of the two anchor roads which travels from the south to north end of town. To make the right on to Jefferson from Shields, one must drive around the perimeter of Deer Run Apartments, whose entrance you cross just after making the turn. Since class was at 4:30, and Williamsburg is 10 miles away, I estimate that I drove past the Deer Run entrance on Jefferson and Chester Road at about 3:55.

Why bring this up? About 45 minutes later, Adrian Holiday and Jeremy Taylor were shot to death in the Deer Run parking lot, not more than 100 yards from the spot I had just crossed.

Adrian, 26, was found slumped in the driver's seat of the white Mercury SUV he was driving. Jeremy, 23, who was catching a ride, tried to make a run for it, and was gunned down in the middle of the parking lot, in broad daylight. It appeared that a couple of stray pedestrians, perhaps known to Taylor, had inquired about a ride in the SUV. But once they entered, things went from bad, to worse, to deadly.

Unfortunately, events such as this are becoming too common in Newport News and neighboring Hampton. Usually there are teenagers, drugs and gang wars involved. But Adrian was a working grown man. He was a veteran who served in Afghanistan. He was engaged to be married. He was not involved in illegal activity.

But this incident touched me for a couple of other reasons. I didn’t know Jeremy, but Adrian was a shot-put and discus thrower for our Denbigh High track teams from 2005-2007. I knew him and brother Jazz well. He was also a lineman on the football team, and at 6’3” and about 300 pounds, stood out in any crowd, not just because of his size, but also his monster personality. They called him “A-Boogie” and it was a name that Adrian made up. As his Dad Jeremy said at the funeral – “Isn’t it something? You just wake up one day, and decide that everyone is going to call you A-Boogie from now on. And everybody did.” It’s probably needless to note that Adrian’s funeral was one of the saddest events I have ever encountered. However, it was very well attended – a testament to the legacy of friends and memories that Adrian left behind.

But it’s the second reason why this event has touched me that will continue to touch our friends and neighbors. Jeremy Holiday, with his wife Aundrea, a police officer in Williamsburg, are using their tragedy as a teaching moment, and one that a lot of folks should pay attention to. Newport News, like many communities across America, is stifled with the “no snitch” policy of the streets. Witnesses may see, but many will never tell, either out of fear, or on a much sadder note, because it is considered to be the honorable way to behave on the street. “Snitches get stitches” is a way too familiar mantra, but many times, the witnesses are more concerned about losing their street “cred,” as opposed to a couple of teeth.

In spite of this, two persons of interest have been identified by the Newport News police. In this forum, I’m not ready to drop their names, simply because they haven’t been charged, and certainly not convicted yet. Go figure, it might be slanderous. I will be happy to do so in due time. But the Holiday’s are taking the offensive. Two weeks ago, on May 4^th, they gathered 25 or so family members and friends, made signs, invited local newspapers and TV camera crews and marched through the middle of Warwick Lawns, the same neighborhood where one or both of the alleged perpetrators live. At the very least, the Holidays believe that someone in the neighborhood knows something, and they want the person or persons to start talking.

“We’re not going to stay locked up in our house,” said Jeremy Holiday. “We’ve been victims once – we’re not going to be victims twice.”

Link to the story can be found here:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/newport-news/dp-nws-nn-homicide-march-20150504-story.html

Other neighborhood marches of this type are planned within the Denbigh community. The point is simple. You can run, but if people stand up and tell the police what they know, you will no longer be able to hide.