Drug worker, 12, gunned down in Camden

Originally Published July 6, 2007; Page 1A
By LEO STRUPCZEWSKI
Courier-Post Staff

A 12-year-old boy who worked in the city's drug trade was killed Wednesday night in a hail of bullets.

James Coleman, a city resident who friends and family called "Pee-Wee," was shot in the head and leg shortly after 11 p.m. in the Branch Village housing complex, officials said. He had been sitting in a 1994 Oldsmobile sedan.


About 20 bullet markers surrounded the car and rested on its hood as investigators worked the scene overnight.

A source close to law enforcement confirmed that Coleman was involved with drug dealing.

Acting Camden County Prosecutor Brian Mulholland said at least two other juveniles were believed to be with James at the car "at or about the time of the shooting," but he would not say how many shots were fired. None of the other juveniles were found at the scene or area hospitals.

It's not known how many shooters there were.

Camden Police executive Arturo Venegas said investigators were still "sorting out" information Thursday afternoon.

Residents said James was waiting for a Domino's pizza delivery at the time of the shooting. His death is the fourth homicide in Branch Village since November 2006 and is the 18th in the city so far this year.

The city's housing authority is in charge of security at the housing complex, but Deputy Executive Director Victor Figueroa said he would not comment on the shooting Thursday.
Branch Village Residents Association President LaVerne Williams said the housing authority has one security guard who patrols the area between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. He works other shifts at housing complexes in the city.

"We don't have anybody," Williams said. "We need a visible security presence . . . This is why the kids are out there selling drugs. We're open for the drugs."

"Pee-Wee was a good kid," said Carl Davis, who coached the boy for the past three years as a middle linebacker for the Staley Park Panthers, a team in the Camden City Youth Football Legue.

"We were really trying to keep him into football," said Davis, describing how he frequently tried to take the boy off Camden's dangerous streets.

"I just told him the other day to get in my van and go home," he recalled. "There's only two things out here: Jail or death."

Friends and family said James, who turned 12 in mid-June, drifted between his mother's and grandmother's homes, eventually landing on the streets near the housing complex. He was enrolled in Camden schools, but officials did not know when he last attended. Older boys looked out for him, said James' aunt, Demetrias Williams.

"He had no one else," Williams said. "His mom uses drugs, his dad is in jail, his grandmom is sick."

Last month, Williams offered him a meal at her house, but he declined, she said.

Those who live in the complex remembered James as a boy who flip-flopped between playing with others his age and working with the drug dealers nearby.

"He had such nice manners," remembered Loretta Smith, a woman who fed James when he hung around her grandson. "I fed him sandwiches, fish, chicken, 'tato salad . . . whatever I had."

The two children would sit in lawn chairs in front of her home, Smith said, and she talked to them about the dangers of the street. She said she knew James, who residents described as small for his age, worked with the drug dealers and tried to talk him out of it.

"Somebody grabbed him before I did," she said. "I told him he was headed the wrong way."

Smith, a church-going woman, said she would pass by James on her way to Mass. She would have her grandson in tow.

"I used to tell him, "You next (to come with me),' " Smith said. "He'd laugh."

Reach Leo Strupczewski at (856) 317-7828 or lstrupczewski@courierpostonline.com