This column appeared in The Herald-Sun in December 2013:
In the past two weeks, DeWarren K. Langley has faced the prospect of attending two funerals for murder victims he’s known.
The first was for Patrick Danial Holmes, a 24-year-old man who Langley saw at a recent prison summit at a local church, where Holmes had talked about the struggle of a convicted felon trying to find honest work after incarceration.
Durham police say James Edward Walker, 22, gunned Holmes down on Fidelity Drive the evening of Dec. 2.
But the second really seemed to strike close to home for Langley, a community and youth advocate.
Someone fired a gun near an apartment on Commerce Street where Darren Taylor slept. Taylor, a 27-year-old father who walked his daughter to the Community Family Life and Recreation Center at Lyon Park every day, died days later of his injuries.
“You don’t hear a lot about young black fathers raising children, instilling values in children, encouraging them to get an education,” Langley said. “For him to have been at home, minding his business, asleep, and be hit by a stray bullet is disheartening in a community where so many great things are going on.”