RICHMOND, Va. – A father – who said he moved his son from Brooklyn to Richmond at the height of the pandemic – is inconsolable after the body of his teenage son was found in a trash can in the city’s East End.
“Things can't go unanswered,” Tamel Durant’s father said. “I mean they put my baby in the trash."
The father of the 17-year-old, who spoke to Jon Burkett Friday but asked that his name not be published, said he feels like the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
"I just felt like there was too much stuff going on and wanted to show him there's other opportunities like I had," he said about when his son moved from New York to live with him in Richmond as COVID raged in 2020.
Tamel was in his senior year at Armstrong High School until Wednesday afternoon when the family’s nightmare began.
That is when the teen's body was found in a blue trash can at 23rd Street and Rosetta Street near Fairfield Court.
“He was a good kid – a harmless individual,” his father said.
Major Crimes detectives believe he was shot hours earlier and placed in the can before it was rolled to the curb, according to Crime Insider sources.
That is something that infuriated NAACP Richmond Chapter President James "JJ" Minor.
"I mean you're killing your own. Put the guns down,” Minor pleaded. “This is ignorant. Gunshots all day long in this neighborhood, throughout the whole city. Put the guns down, people."
At the time of this interview, Minor only knew it was a teenage boy's murder.
He learned hours later that the boy killed is a stepson of one of his own cousins.
“It’s disgusting man,” Minor said. “You don’t value life? You shoot somebody and then put them in a trash can? I mean, who does that? Who would do something like that? It’s sickening."
While no arrests have been made in the case, it is believed that two other teenagers are involved, according to Crime Insider sources.
Those sources said the United States Marshal Service Fugitive Task is on the hunt for those suspects.
Anyone with information about the crime is urged to call Major Crimes Detective A. Coates at 804-646-0729 or Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000. The P3 Tips Crime Stoppers app for smartphones also may be used. All Crime Stoppers reporting methods are anonymous.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
