The McKinley High Alumni Association’s monthly meetings generally start the same way. There are a few conversations among members, a few jokes are shared and then there is a call to order.
There is a prayer and then the group dives into the agenda. That’s the routine. But there was something else on Tuesday night. The chaplain’s voice was seasoned with emotion. Alice Deggs was in pain.
“Lord, I pray that we stop the shooting and killing in our community ... a man, a friend that lived near me was killed today,” Deggs said. You could feel the hurt in her voice. Her pain would have been measured on a Richter scale for emotions.
What we didn’t know was that just a few hours earlier, the chaplain’s neighbor, 61-year-old Dwain Fleming, was killed near the intersection of South 18th and America streets. Some witnesses, according to police, said as many as 10 shots were fired during the event. Other accounts in the community claimed even more bullets were fired.
As of this writing, no one has been arrested and no motive has been given for the killing.
What is clear, though, is that Fleming immediately became another of the faceless statistics on the way to a cemetery in the Black community.
The good report, as they say in the church, is that homicides fell nationally in 2023 compared to the previous year across the country.
East Baton Rouge Parish homicide deaths mirrored that drop in 2023 with 100 compared to 115 in 2022, and 149 in 2021. The hope is that it will continue.
Statistics, however, are just numbers. They don’t tell the story of the pain that each killing takes on the people in close-knit neighborhoods like the one where Fleming lived.
Ask the Rev. Dale Flowers, president of the McKinley Alumni Association. He was a few minutes late for Tuesday’s meeting because he was still dealing with Fleming’s killing, which took place near New Sunlight Baptist Church, where he is the pastor.
He and Fleming were longtime friends. In fact, Fleming lived next to the church and was a friend of the church, Flowers said.
“This is traumatic to the community,” Flowers said. While Fleming may not have had a regular job, “he was a productive and respected member of the community. He fixed peoples’ cars. You can say he was a shade tree mechanic. But he didn’t bother anyone.”
While Fleming was not a member of the church, “I called him our 'security camera’ for the church,” adding that Fleming “would take it upon himself” to shoo people away from places around the church where they shouldn’t be.
“Sadly,” Flowers said, “the outside community folks will say about the killing, ‘there they go again,’ ” minus the empathy that is shown when similar incidents happen in other neighborhoods.
Looking at only headlines and snippets from TV news, he said, they can’t see or feel the pain felt in the community, which will have to deal with this type of loss for a long time.
The community around the church is hurting because of Fleming’s death. That’s the part the larger society doesn’t appreciate.
As an example, Deggs said, “I had to comfort my daughter who was hurt by this.” Members of Fleming's family and friends held a balloon release honoring his life on Wednesday in the New Sunlight parking lot.
Yes, all communities want to do something about the violence, but there are no easy over-the-counter solutions and people who claim they have them are not telling the truth. What is happening is complex and will take a commitment of years to truly make a difference.
Flowers and others in the affected communities want people to know that statistics don’t tell the stories of the gut punch they feel.
As he said of Fleming, “He just wore his coveralls every day, ready to fix a car. ... This hurts.”
Email Edward Pratt, a former newspaperman, at epratt1972@yahoo.com.