This guest column comes from Ricardo Vela, whose 22-year-old son Antonio Valdez Vela was killed in a shooting Aug. 30 in the 4400 block of F Street, SE.
DeAngelo Jose Garner, a 26-year-old District Heights man, is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder in the case but has not been indicted. Garner is due to appear in court Wednesday for a felony status hearing. As a note, guest columns are published unedited.
Homicide victim Antonio “AJ” Vela with his son Kyiree in a submitted photo
We call him AJ. AJ was 22 when he was murdered. He was a good son.
He was attending Southern Maryland Community College. This would have been his second year. After he received his AA in Criminal Justice, his plans was to join the DC police department. His goal was to join the department and once settle in his job, he would continue his education to get his bachelor degree. Once he got that he want to becomes a member of the Crime Scene Investigation teams. He like helping people. He had so many of his friend murdered, he want to be able to help solved crimes and ensure that everyone that was involved in the crime get the punishment that they deserve.
If you check out his facebook profile you would see how many of his friends still write him wishing he was here to give advice. We used to live in SE DC, but moved to get away from the violence, the only problem was that his Mother still lived in the area and all of his friends. He kept going back!!
I will be in court Wed.
AJ was not only my son, he was a friend. I love him so much and when this happened, I really didn’t know what to do. I am currently in the Air Force Reserve. I am on Active Duty at Andrews AFB. I am a Military Police Officer. After this happened I couldn’t returned to work for almost 3 months. I lost about 20 lbs, couldn’t sleep and couldn’t eat. I didn’t want to be bother by anyone. This tragic event changes our whole world. I still can’t believed this have happened.
I prayed that this is a nightmare and I will wake up and walk into my son room while he is asleep. It still seem like it just happened yesterday. My daughters and other sons was feeling the same way I did. They are angry right now. AJ have a 2 yrs old son name Kyriee. I remembered when first brought his son home. He got up during the night, change his diaper, fed him and took very good care of him. I was so proud of him. He loved his son so much.
A video in memory of Vela is on Facebook.
