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Friday evening, hundreds of young people, family members, coaches and people from the community turned out for Qua’Lek and to release black and red balloons in his memory.
“It’s unreal to be here for him like this,” his cousin Jamar Payton told our News Center 7 videographer. “I just don’t know how to explain it.”
Payton described Qua’Lek — the medal-winning hurdler and football player — as his “backbone.”
“He was smart,” Payton said. “He was a good kid. He was definitely goofy. I got a lot of memories of him being goofy.”
Smart. Good kid. Athletic. Those have been the words used to describe a young man who finished fifth among 50 other competitors in his very first high school track meet the day before gunfire cut him down. The venue was a statewide meet held at Youngstown State University.
DaJuan Lamb, a coach for the (Dunbar) Wee Wolverines and the school’s track & field team, remembered Qua’Lek not only as a smart athlete but as a family member as well.
Qua’Lek lived in the Lamb household a couple of years, the coach said, and the youngster was his son’s best friend.
“Qua’Lek was a major person,” Lamb said. “A bright student. An A-B student. Super-duper athlete. He touched a lot of people.”
Payton described the reason for the gathering as unreal and Lamb described the slaying as devastating to him, but both expressed confidence the community will move forward with respect and love for Qua’Lek.
"It's nonsense. (The deadly gun violence) needs to stop," said Lamb, who was at the hospital with the family Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
“I was hoping for the best,” he said. “I was praying for the best.”
Lamb said he’ll tell the community to “keep working … Give it what you got. I’ll tell [Qua'Lek] I love him.”
The community has confidence, Payton said, that police will “handle” the investigation.
As of Friday night, the Dayton Police Department has not communicated publicly whether detectives have a suspect or a person of interest.
Police this week did seize an SUV they believe carried the person or persons involved in the shooting.
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