'I'm in the dark:' Father seeks answers in teen's death

Pictured with his father, Steven Peoples, right, Dee Sparkman, 19, was shot in the Highland community of Gastonia on Monday afternoon.
Pictured with his father, Steven Peoples, right, Dee Sparkman, 19, was shot in the Highland community of Gastonia on Monday afternoon.

Deionte Sparkman is thought to have been walking home with a friend from the Highland neighborhood of Gastonia on Monday afternoon when he was fatally shot.

His family knows little else about what happened to him.

"I'm trying to come to the light of everything," said his father, Steven Peoples. "I'm in the dark."

Sparkman, 19, who was known by friends and family as Dee, graduated in 2021 from Warlick Academy. His favorite subject in school was math.

Sparkman most recently was working at Wendy's, Peoples said, but he was planning to apply to a community college — either Gaston College, or Florence-Darlington Technical College in Florence, South Carolina, where Sparkman is originally from.

"He loved computers," his father said, and he also loved playing basketball at a recreation center near where he lived in Gastonia.

Sparkman was "a bubbly guy," Peoples said. He loved to smile, and he loved to make others laugh. He enjoyed playing jokes on his family — he might say something was happening outside, then when his parents went to look, "he'd have one of his friends or somebody pop out and scare us."

Sparkman was also determined, the type of person who was willing to learn anything, no matter how long it took him, his father said. When he learned to drive, Sparkman practiced in a parking lot near their home until he mastered it and got his license.

"That was one of the things I loved about him," Peoples said. "I was so proud of him."

Sparkman also was willing to watch out for his siblings, four of whom were younger than him.

He took the lead, helping them with their homework, or making sure that they got on the bus in the morning, Peoples said.

Peoples, who works the third shift as a machine operator, said he last saw Sparkman Sunday night before Peoples left for work. They talked about what Sparkman needed to do on Monday morning to help his siblings onto the school bus.

Now, his family is searching for answers.

"He was a good kid," Peoples said. "And he didn't have no enemies, none whatsoever. We'd like to know what happened to him, and if you know anything, say something," he said. "It would mean a whole lot, the sooner the better."

Reporter Kara Fohner can be reached at 704-869-1850 or at kfohner@gannett.com. Support local journalism by subscribing here.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: 'I'm in the dark:' Gastonia father seeks answers in teen's death