Youth was ‘friends with everyone’

By Brian McNeill

Published: June 3, 2008

On Monday afternoon, 11-year-old Aziz Damar Booth biked down the hill from his home on Sixth 1/2 Street to Tonsler Park to play basketball with his buddy Tilik Jones.

The next day, Tilik, 13, was back at the basketball court, but this time he was alone.

Aziz — who had just graduated the sixth grade at Walker Upper Elementary School — had been shot to death overnight.

“He was just down here yesterday,” Tilik said, having just learned that his friend was dead. “We were just playing together. I don’t believe it. He was a good kid. He was cool.”

Aziz, who was known as “ZZ,” loved playing football and basketball with other youngsters from his neighborhood, a working-class community off Cherry Avenue. He would often wave to his neighbors as he pedalled by on his black Honda racing bicycle. Tuesday afternoon, Aziz’s bicycle remained chained to his front porch.

“He was the quiet type, but outgoing, you know?” said Detwan Thomas, who resides in the other half of the duplex where Aziz lived with his mother. “He didn’t mess with nobody. This is crazy.”

The slaying of Aziz marks Charlottesville’s first shooting death of a child in 14 years. In January 1994, a 2-year-old girl named Sharon Devon Tanner was killed by a stray bullet during a drug deal.

Police have yet to confirm many details of what happened inside Aziz’s house just after midnight Tuesday. However, they have said that they responded to a report of shots fired at 330 Sixth 1/2 St. S.W. and arrived to find 23-year-old Rueben Lewis III, Aziz’s mother’s boyfriend, wounded by gunfire. Lewis directed police to the home’s kitchen, where they found Aziz’s body.

On Friday, Aziz had walked across the stage at a “moving on” ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center for sixth-grade students who will be attending Buford Middle School in the fall. Aziz had been excited about graduation in recent days, his neighbors said. He was also looking forward to spending the summer with his grandfather in New Jersey, they said.

At Walker Upper Elementary School, Aziz was an athletic and popular student who was “friends with everyone,” said Charlottesville schools Superintendent Rosa Atkins.

The elementary school’s principal, Terri L. Perkins, said that Aziz loved playing basketball during recess and loved talking about sports, particularly about his favorite football teams, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Virginia Tech Hokies. He was the type of student, she said, who would be the first to raise his hand whenever a teacher asked a question.

“Aziz was an enthusiastic student, excited to learn in every subject area,” she said. “He was also an avid fan of basketball and other sports. He had a terrific sixth-grade year at Walker, and we will sorely miss the bright smile that he was well-known for.”

Aziz’s death has saddened his classmates at Walker, Perkins said.

“Students have been mourning Aziz since the news hit this morning,” she said. “On their cards to his family, they wrote about wanting to have said goodbye; one even noted that if she had a magic wand, she would ‘wish him back to Earth.’ They very much wanted to express their feelings to Aziz’s mom. He was well-liked and will be sorely missed by our students.”

The school system is offering his classmates counseling services to help them cope with their grief.

Chris Ramsey, 20, lived with Aziz’s family at the duplex not long ago. He remembered the 11-year-old as a typical child who loved to play PlayStation video games, as well as play outside with friends.

“I’m going to miss him,” Ramsey said. “It hurts to hear he’s gone. But we can’t do nothing about it. It’s all in God’s hands now.”

Up the street from Aziz’s duplex lives Ophelia Wells, a resident of the neighborhood for nearly 40 years. Known as “Miss Wells” in the community, Wells was well acquainted with Aziz. He would play basketball with her 8-year-old grandson nearly every day. Wells made her grandson finish his homework before heading down to the basketball courts, so Aziz would often sit patiently on her front porch until he finished.

“He was a good kid,” she said. “He’d be up here every day playing with my grandson. It’s just a shame. A real shame. He was just a nice little boy. Everybody that knows him likes him.”

The school district has set up the Aziz Booth Memorial Fund to assist his family. Those wishing to donate should write a check to Charlottesville City Schools and write the fund’s name on the check’s memo line. Checks can be dropped off or mailed to the school district’s central office at 1562 Dairy Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, or to Walker Upper Elementary School at 1564 Dairy Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Once all of the contributions have been collected, the school system will write a check to Aziz’s mother.

Daily Progress staff writer

Bryan McKenzie contributed

to this story.