Family of 12-year-old Josiah Small struggle as they prepare to bury the South Bend boy

SOUTH BEND — Erika Small stepped out of a black sedan in which she'd been trying to gather herself. She'd thought it over and she wasn’t going into the funeral home where her only son, Josiah Small, lay dead.

Her older sister and her aunt stood by quietly with two close friends. They'd made the trip Monday morning to Boyd and Son Funeral Home, just west of a small cemetery on the city's northwest side, for a decision only Small could make.

The young mother — she turned 30 that gray and windy morning — was asked to lay eyes raw from weeping and exhaustion on the corpse of her 12-year-old boy, dead from a gunshot to the head on Oct. 27, and decide whether his casket would be open at his upcoming service.

Leaving Small in the car, the four women entered the old white house. They asked the owner when Josiah’s obituary was to be posted. There was some confusion about whether the post would include a picture of Josiah in his football jersey. A friend went out to consult with Small.

A few moments later, the boy's mother changed her mind and walked abruptly in through the funeral home's front door.

Standing in there, Josiah dead on a table in the next room, separated from the women by nothing more than a black curtain and a few feet of air that hung thick with dread, the young mother planned her son's celebration of life. In the few ways left for her to do so, she took care of him.

Awful deliberation followed.

“Who’s speaking?” she asked. “Who’s reading the obituary?”

“I have to feel like he’s presentable enough," she said, "for other people to see him."

“I was concerned,” she said, “because he was shot in the head.”

An outbreak of gun violence in South Bend

Josiah was the 19th person killed in a shooting in South Bend this year, according to police data. He was the fourth child, but not the youngest.

In April, 11-year-old T’yon Horston was shot and killed on the northwest side by an 18-year-old who’s charged with murder. In July, 16-year-old Luis Hernandez-Acosta was shot to death on the west side by an accused murderer who’s the same age. In August, 1-year-old Kylin Brooks died from a shot to the head after he and his 2-year-old cousin found a handgun a caretaker had left under a pillow on the floor.

Police have yet to charge anyone in Josiah’s slaying. He was shot alongside a 14-year-old boy whose wounds weren't life-threatening. On Wednesday night, police said there are no updates on the case that they can make public.

Killing of Josiah Small: On Site Prayer Ministry to hold vigil Thursday for slain 12-year-old

Less than a month ago, the South Bend Police Department shared encouraging news about a downward trend in gun violence. The number of people injured or killed by gunfire in the nine months leading up to October was down 41% from the nine-month average of past years. Thirteen people died in shootings over that same period this year, a nearly 30% drop from the same nine-month standard.

But since mid-October, four people have been shot to death.

Josiah’s killing is not the most recent. On Nov. 3, Khalyiah Bell, a 25-year-old woman, died in a shooting at Beacon Heights Apartments on the far northwest side.

The next day, at the same apartment complex, 39-year-old Martinez Lambert was stabbed to death.

Each of the past two years, about 120 people have been killed or injured by gunshots in South Bend. Police say there are about 70 shooting victims so far this year.

“We cannot accept violence as normal,” longtime South Bend Common Council member Karen White said in a statement after the Beacon Heights killings. “By listening to those affected and addressing urgent needs around jobs, healthcare and safety, we can interrupt harm.”

Adanakai Wheeler, Erika Small’s 37-year-old sister, moved back to South Bend from Florida this spring. Wheeler said parts of her hometown seem to have changed for the worse.

As a child, she ran up and down a street in the Near Northwest Neighborhood where she says she wouldn’t dare raise her kids today. Instead of walking around town, her children are driven. Her 10-year-old son has struggled to sleep since his cousin Josiah died.

Wheeler puts some of the blame on a policy signed into law last year by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb. Despite condemnation from local law enforcement leaders statewide, legislators passed a bill eliminating the need to obtain a permit to carry a handgun.

The law took effect July 1, 2022. South Bend officials consistently cite it as a major setback in the city’s battle to curb gun violence.

“Kids can’t go outside and play,” Wheeler said. “Kids just can’t be kids. That’s crazy to me.”

A sweet son and doting brother stolen

Small moved with Josiah and her baby girl, Emeryss, this spring in search of a safer neighborhood, she said. The family ended up on the south side in a home near Rum Village.

The day Josiah died was Emeryss’ 2nd birthday, Small said.

The three of them were home together until Small left to wash clothes at a nearby laundromat. Josiah asked if he could go outside and play while she was away. She told him no, he needed to stay home and clean up his room and prepare the house ahead of his sister’s birthday party.

He went anyway. His mother had been gone less than an hour when a family member called to tell her Josiah had been shot.

The family says police told them that Josiah was chased on foot. Judging from the gunshot wound, family members say, the bullet seems to have entered his head from the front.

They’re unmoored by the likelihood Josiah was face to face with his killer, who must have known he was erasing the life of a young boy. A terrified boy who they say never got himself in trouble and was always complimented on his behavior.

“I was worried about him possibly being at the wrong place at the wrong time and something happening to him,” Small said. “That’s what I was trying to prevent.”

Josiah had just turned 12 years old a week before his death.

He was mere months into the 6th grade at Dickinson Fine Arts Academy. His stocky frame and nimble feet made him a good lineman on the school’s football team. He looked forward to the winter wrestling season after a strong showing the year before, when he won first place medals galore, his mother said.

He was a sweet kid who hated to hear anyone made fun of, his family said. He would try to befriend children who were different because he knew that his peers ostracized them.

Josiah’s tenderest love was reserved for his mother and his new sister, whom he adored. What’s most painful, Small said, is that she can no longer watch her two children get to know each other.

Now the baby wonders where her big brother is. She thought she found him one day when her mother was scrolling through old photos and videos on her cellphone.

“Usually when she walks up to me, I try to turn the phone (away). But I was a little slow that day and she saw his picture,” Small said. “So she snatched the phone out of my hand and she was going around like, ‘Look at Josiah.’

“Just showing everybody the phone, like, ‘Josiah. Josiah.’”

'Oh, my baby'

Small didn’t end up seeing her dead son Monday. She wasn’t ready.

She asked the others to look at him first to determine whether she could bear the sight.

Small finished folding the freshly bought outfit that Josiah will wear into his grave — a bright red baseball jersey and immaculate white jeans to pair with one final haircut from a barber — and walked outside to the car.

There was not much crying at first when Wheeler and two other women, Josiah's great aunt along with a close family friend, saw the boy. Only shock. Then sniffling. Then heavy exhales.

His great aunt said he looked like a little boy asleep on his bed before school, ignoring his mother’s pleas for him to wake up.

Wheeler could utter only a few words at first when she saw Josiah, whom she called TT-Boo and came to love as a son during his frequent trips to Florida to visit her.

“Oh, my baby,” she said as her wide eyes met the boy's face.

“Oh, my baby. Oh, my baby.”

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Dickinson Academy 6th-grader is yet another child dead by gun violence