East St. Louis mother and her family struggle with shooting death of 14-year-old
Kyeiontae Stidimire was looking forward to his freshman year at East St. Louis High School this fall after graduating from the eighth grade June 3.
Six days later, Kyeiontae was shot to death as he walked to his family’s apartment at John DeShields Housing complex in East St. Louis with his older brother.
“He was just a child. He was just 14,” his mother, Rayona Stidimire, said through tears. “He had dreams, hopes, and goals.
“Kyeiontae always told me he was going to make me proud. I was already proud of him. But he always told me he was going to be successful in life.”
East St. Louis Police Sgt. Cantrell Patterson said police are still investigating Kyeiontae’s death. No arrests have been made. A second teen and a toddler were injured that day and are recovering, police said.
Kyeiontae’s family wants justice and hopes the police will find the shooter. His mother is asking people to contact police if they have information.
“The person who killed my child not only took his life, but has destroyed his family,” Rayona Stidimire said, with flashes of anger in her voice. “Life for us will never be the same.
“We won’t see him playing his games, running around being a 14-year-old boy. We won’t see him graduate from high school, go to college, get that job he really wanted, get married or have kids of his own. No one has the right to to do this to a family.”
She described her son as sweet, humble, “cool, down to earth.” She said Kyeiontae “didn’t bother anybody. He stayed to himself and loved everybody. He was not rowdy.”
He loved to play video games and to be around his brother and sister.
Stidimire wants everyone to remember her son’s smile. “He was always smiling,” she said.
Sheila Nelson-Stidimire called her grandson “Light Bright.”
“Whatever room he was in, he lit it up with his smile,” she said. “Now, I will never see his smile, except for in my memories. That is just not supposed to be. He didn’t talk much but when he smiled, any room he was in he lit it up.”
Nelson-Stidimire said Kyeiontae worked hard to graduate from middle school and should have had the opportunity to go on to high school and beyond. He stopped by her home after he graduated from middle school earlier this month. She congratulated and praised him. Then, “I gave him $20,” she said.
Kyeiontae walking home when shot
The shooting happened on the night June 9, when Kyeiontae and his 17-year-old brother, Kyeion, were on their way back to the housing complex where the family has lived for about 15 years, Rayona Stidimire said.
Kyeion told his mother he and Kyeiontae had walked a friend halfway home so he would not have to walk alone. On the way back, they stopped to talk to some friends.
Rayona heard what at first she thought were firecrackers that night. Her 6-year-old daughter told her they didn’t sound like firecrackers.
Rayona called Kyeion to see if her sons were OK, but before “I could get out the words,” Kyeion said Kyeiontae had been shot.
Horrified by this news, Rayona quickly called 911 and was frustrated by all of the questions the dispatcher asked her, she said.
“Kyeion told me he was dialing 911 at the same time,“ Rayona Stidimire said. “A couple more people said they called 911 too.”
She rushed out to get to her sons. “As I was leaving, I heard many more gunshots. I didn’t care about that though. I had to get to my sons. When I got to them, my older son was telling him to ‘breathe,breathe,”’ she said. “My 17-year-old watched his brother take his last breath.”
Kyeiontae was pronounced dead at 10:59 p.m. at the scene, St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said.
Family wants out of DeShields
Today, the family is struggling with the loss of Kyeiontae. Kyeion is traumatized and having a hard time dealing with his younger brother’s death , Rayona Stidimire said.
Nelson-Stidimire said: “There are no words I can find to say to comfort my daughter. I pray every morning and every night. This didn’t just start. I have been praying all of the time for these killings to stop. I pray for my grandkids. It’s time to get them out of here.”
The Stidimires don’t have the money to pay for Kyeiontae’s funeral and have set up a bank account in his name for donations at Associated Bank on Collinsville Avenue in East St. Louis, Rayona Stidimire said.
They also want to get out of the John DeShields complex, Nelson-Stidimire said.
“My grandkids are traumatized. It’s just the way this happened that has everyone so traumatized,” she said.
Cortez Slack, chief of public safety for the East St. Louis Housing Authority, said he was stunned when he heard that a 14-year-old had been shot.
“Anytime you get someone that age caught up in something like this - you can’t make it make sense,” he said Tuesday.
Slack said gun violence affects everyone. He said that he and his public safety officers “feel the loss as well as the families.”
“When somebody randomly shoots and kids get caught in the cross fire, it affects us psychologically,” he said.
Rayona Stidimire said this could happen to others if people don’t help the police get the shooter off the streets.
“I am tired of all of these senseless killings,” she said. “What is it going to take to get these people to put these guns down? It has to stop.
“It doesn’t matter whether they are adults or children. Black people are dying in the streets, and many of them, like my son, are innocent victims.”
This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
