A life of much promise cut down in one instant
One moment, 15-year-old Brandon Suttles - honor student, gifted athlete, church choir singer and role model on his block in Strawberry Mansion - was sitting out on the steps, talking to an older cousin.
One moment, 15-year-old Brandon Suttles - honor student, gifted athlete, church choir singer and role model on his block in Strawberry Mansion - was sitting out on the steps, talking to an older cousin.
It was just before 2 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 25, and his grandmother Bonnie Suttles was about to shoo him back into the Newkirk Street rowhouse the two shared with the boy's dog, Champagne.
The next moment, the youth lay dying of gunshot wounds. Police say Suttles was not a target and was probably caught in the crossfire of a dispute between warring groups; no arrests have been made in the shooting.
"I can see him right now," his aunt Pam Tate said wistfully at a vigil for the teen Friday night, "playing basketball as a heavenly guard."
If the killing of Brandon was random, for hundreds of mourners his death was nothing if not personal.
At Saturday's funeral at Southern Baptist Church at Fifth and Venango Streets, coaches and teammates from the Penn Jaguars basketball program paid tribute, and a citation from City Council to honor the teen's life was read, along with letters from Council members.
From Father Judge High School, where Brandon spent ninth grade, came two busloads of classmates and the assistant principal, the Rev. Jack Kolodziej, who spoke of the teen's "great impact" on the school community.
"Brandon, who was a student, is now a teacher, an apostle of peace," he said.
During the service, Brandon's parents, who turned over the raising of him to his grandmother because they were too young, praised the boy's wisdom. Tate read a letter to Brandon from his father, Preston Suttles: "Son, you done won the game. You are on the starting line in heaven. You can coach me." Brandon's mother, Nichole Denard, thanked her son, "who gave me the spirit to hope and to dream."
Brandon had left Judge and planned to attend a basketball boarding school this year, but at the time of his death - less than a month from his 16th birthday - he was considering enrolling at a charter school in Philadelphia instead so he could stay with his grandmother and Champagne. Finances were also an issue: "It was such a struggle to keep him in private school," remembered Lisa Hayward, mother of one of Brandon's teammates.
Leroy Hill Jr., a minister and a cousin of Brandon's , was one of several to recognize in his eulogy the teen's grandmother, who had cared for him since kindergarten.
"To be able to raise up a 16-year-old African American in Philly, and for him to never have been locked up or in trouble or have anyone say a bad word about him . . . . He had love in his heart."
The overflowing church answered with a standing ovation for Bonnie Suttles.
For more photos visit http://go.philly.com/brandon EndText