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Elijah King was a student at Holy Family Catholic School Cristo Rey when first recruit Emantic Bradford, Jr. walked through the doors.
Originally, King did not want to attend Ensley Private School for "economically disadvantaged families," as he says on his website. It was a child of public school passing from minor elementary to high school Wenonah High, but King "had some problems" and the public school system did allow him not to come back.
Holy Family was a few blocks from his home, light years away from his sensitivity. Yet he quickly learned that he was where he should be.
"It was a blessing," he says now.
He loved the small group of students – about 300 students – and different things from the public. school: like everyone who dines at the same time
Students earn $ 7,000 on their $ 9,700 annual tuition by working one day a week for local businesses. (Each student receives a $ 2,500 bursary and parents are responsible for the remaining portion.) Prior to their internship, students take eight weeks of training to prepare them for an environment they are unlikely to be familiar with.
King, now 24, and Bradford – a 21-year-old Hueytown native killed by Hoover police at the Riverchase Galleria Mall on Thanksgiving night – became friends.
"He was crazy," recalls King. "It reminds me of Martin [Lawrence] a funny guy, crazy, full of joy, always happy. It was a character. He was my friend.
Bradford, now known as EJ, will be buried Saturday at Valhalla Cemetery, as a result of a religious service at the Boutwell Auditorium, where the funeral eulogy will be delivered by Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jr. He died on the mall floor, having had at least one gunshot wound to his face, after a dispute between at least three men (including Bradford, according to the police) who had started at the FootAction store. in the mall, escalated into gunfire and Bradford, who had a gun that he was allowed to carry, was shot by police in the ensuing chaos.
We do not yet know exactly what happened in the tense moments of this mortal encounter. This will almost certainly be revealed (or just about all the hopes) in the mall and bodycam video clips that have not yet been released by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), which oversees the work. murder investigation.
Now we do not know.
No matter what happened, no matter what the video ultimately reveals, a young life – filled with family and friends, challenges and obstacles and fatal choices – it's tragically ended 10 nights ago in Hoover,
"My son was my heart and my world," EJ Bradford, Sr., told me this week. "He used to sleep on my chest when he was a baby. When he got a little older, I rushed out to work while his mother held him back because he did not want me to leave. We had this type of link. "
" Goofball "seems to be the description of choice for many who knew Bradford, including Ladarious Agee. "He liked making jokes," he said. "He was clumsy and silent."
"He was really very stupid," said another former Holy Family student, who did not want his name to be used. "He has always been in class and was one of the most popular guys in the school.
Tony Fikes, now an officer in the Birmingham Police Department and posted to Huffman High School, coached Bradford on the Holy Family Junior Basketball Team. Due to the school's low school attendance, Fikes faced Bradford in all positions, but especially in the reduced and advanced power positions.
Bradford's nickname was "Smoke" – in part, says Fikes, because of his dark skin. But Bradford's mischievous nature also contributed to the nickname.
"He was a joker," said Fikes. "One time, I saw him with a group of kids and I said," What are you doing there? He made a move with his hand as he smoked, as he was cool. You must know him.
"He was a good kid, but I guess you can tell it pretty much about all kids," said Fikes. "It was an average teenager. He had good and bad days.
Bradford left the Holy Family in his second year of schooling, remembers father Alex Steinmiller, president of the school from 2007 to 2016. According to him, Bradford was an "average" student who " could do well when he wanted to focus.
Steinmiller says that Bradford came to see him after the murder of 15-year-old Jarmaine Walton at Railroad Park in March 2013.
"He took me aside and said that he knew who shot the kid, it was an installation, "says Steinmiller." He was afraid of being killed because he knew the kid. "I said," Where were you? " said he was at home doing his homework for a math test.
"It was a bit of a leap for him," Steinmiller said with a slight laugh. He was really trying to succeed. "
Steinmiller attributes Bradford's departure to a pace that too many African-American youngsters find hard to resist, a pressure to conform to an environment where wearing a tie every day is not a cool.
"There is an attraction," Steinmiller said, "a peer pressure that brings them back to what is safe and" safe "for them. We have children who go out every day at half-past three and immediately take off their white ties and shirts.
Leonard Stephens, owner of Step by Step Sports Training and co-owner of Proactive Athletic and Fitness Training, coaches young children from the age of five to the age of five. He says that a lot of them dress, talk and show up on social media in a way that is not what they are, often with social media. firearms or displaying hand signs that could be interpreted as gang signs.
"You take pictures of what you're not affiliated with, but look like you want people to think you want to be," he says. "I try not to judge because I know it's not what they are. They do it to integrate. "
" I knew what [Bradford] was facing beyond our walls, "says Steinmiller. I tried to dissuade him from leaving but the pressure was too strong. I would have liked to keep in touch with him. I regret not having done so. It was obvious that he was trying to start.
King states that Bradford joined the army because he wanted to make Emantic Sr. proud. "His father was a decorated sailor," recalls King.
The breadth of Bradford's service has been in conflict since his death. His family proudly claims that he "served his country" and his mother, April Pipkins, is rarely seen without the eight-by-ten picture of her eldest son wearing his military outfit.
US. The Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Manny Ortiz, however told Carol Robinson of AL.com that Bradford had not followed any advanced individual training and "n". had not been used. "
" Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr. reported having completed initial training in November 2017 and was separated administratively in August 2018 before completing training; therefore, he did not receive a military specialty.
King, who now works as a regional field director for a political consulting firm, says he spoke to Bradford before he left for his assessment before basic training. "I told him: Do your best," he said. "The army is not for everyone. But once you have registered, you are a soldier. You are different. You are the property of the government. Whatever one says, this man was a soldier. "
Much has been said about Bradford carrying a weapon in the mall. The increase in gun violence in America's cities is attributed to many complicated and interrelated factors.
In the South, especially in Alabama with open door, these factors allow for the fact that any legally authorized person may own a weapon. . And by a culture that considers owning and using a firearm as a rite of passage – a culture that is not limited to a single race.
"When you're 16, you want to get your driver's license, is not it?", King asked. "Well, at 21, we want to get our gun license. To say that I can be arrested and not be arrested because it is my legal right to wear it.
"All my friends are armed," he says. "I own a gun, my mother a gun, my uncle a gun, my grandmother is a gun. We are a family of rifles. It's the freedom to live in the South and I love it.
"White children learn to hunt at the age of 12 or 13 years old.
The Hoover authorities voluntarily stated that Bradford "brandished" his weapon when he met the officer who shot him. Merriam-Webster defines the word as "an act or an instance to agitate something threateningly or to show something ostentatiously or aggressively".
King, and many others, do not buy it. "E.J. was in the army, he said. "He was trained to use it if the situation arose."
"When buyers heard gunshots, many of them pulled out their guns," he said. added. "To that extent, he was like other buyers. Unfortunately, he was shot. "
Shooting at Galleria: What happened and when
did Pipkins visit the Rock City church on occasion, which will house the town? Saturday hospitality at the Boutwell Auditorium?
Pastor Mike McClure, Jr. says Bradford's mother recently shared with him that the last time she had come to church, "she had the impression that I prayed for EJ. and herself "when he stretched out his hands to the section where she was sitting and prayed."
That the name of Bradford, in death, becomes national does not surprise McClure.
"We may not know him not be, but we know him, "said the pastor. "When we look him in the eyes, we see him being at school, with his friends, looking like many of our young children, great kids excited about life, but also young children
"EJ It was not Dylann Roof [who murdered nine people in a black church in Charleston, S.C. in June 2015] When the police found him [brought him food from] Burger King. Regardless of what happened in this mall, EJ
"The value for people of color in this country has been reduced – when we see Travon Martin, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland and D & # 39; countless other people we have never heard of in cities around the world. world.
"That's why EJ resonates with so many people.
Emantic Bradford, Sr. Fights Cancer. As often happens in families, the disease has caused a reversal of the roles of father and son. "When I got sick, he changed and became a man. he became more of a guardian than a son, "remembers the father. "He was there to help me and take me where I needed to go."
"I told him to become a better man than me and he did it. "
The father was raised by his grandparents and did what he could with what they provided, with what they taught." He became supervisor of Food Services at Birmingham City Prison.
As his son grew up, he opened a current account for him in a local credit union and tried to provide him with more than he had been given.
"I told him I gave everything my grandparents could not give me, "he said," I did it so that he could have a better life than me. " Was my man. "
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