'How many more?' Southfield teen shot, killed weeks before heading off to college

DeLisa Glaspie worked hard her entire life so her son could experience life outside of metro Detroit one day.

And he almost did. By the end of summer, Khalil Amari Allen, 18, would have been starting his sports management degree at Claflin University, a historically Black university in South Carolina.

But then, on July 11, he was shot in Detroit in broad daylight.

“Oh Jesus,” Glaspie, 54, said as she held her face, her eyes weary.

“I just saw so much more for him.”

The Southfield teen was driving to get food on Detroit's west side when he was shot multiple times at about 3:50 p.m. at the intersection of West McNichols Road and the Southfield Service Drive.

At least two men in a gray Jeep Cherokee with black wheels were seen fleeing from the scene, according to Detroit police. The men, who have not been identified, are wanted by Detroit police for questioning.

Detroit police said it's unknown at this time whether the shooting was targeted, but detectives continue to investigate the killing.

Glaspie said her son smiled when asking her for the car keys that afternoon to get food. “Khalil, right back,” she told him. “OK,” he responded.

Glaspie grew worried when her son didn't come back. He wasn’t answering his phone, either. Then a friend called — a video shared on social media showed her Jeep Cherokee in some sort of accident at West McNichols Road and the Southfield Service Drive.

She went to the scene, but by then, her son and her car were gone. It was an employee at a nearby gas station who told her that her son had been shot.

“I just died, right there,” Glaspie said.

She grazed the parts of her body where she said her son had been shot — his head, his stomach, his chest. She couldn’t remember the rest — he was shot too many times, Glaspie said.

Allen’s killers haven’t been identified or apprehended, but the grieving mother has a bad feeling her son’s death may have been targeted.

Allen had recently joined a rap group and inherited enemies, Glaspie said. She said her son had been “jumped” at least four times over the past year, twice at University High School Academy in Lathrup Village, from which Allen had just graduated.

She said she pleaded to the Southfield Public School District and the police to help her son. Instead, the school district suspended Allen.

“I begged you, begged you, to get in front of this,” Glaspie said she told Southfield schools' officials. “You did nothing.”

The Detroit Free Press reached out to Southfield public schools and Southfield police for comment. Both did not respond directly to Glaspie's claims, but acknowledged that the mother is grieving.

Allen grew up as a child of a social worker — Glaspie works as one in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Allen was raised right, she said. But she went from planning her son’s graduation party for Thursday to planning his funeral. The school colors Allen would have worn proudly as a student at Claflin University — orange and maroon — became the colors of the balloons friends and family brought to his vigil.

“I’ve helped hundreds of kids … hundreds. How is it that I lost mine?” Glaspie said in agony.

Khalil was creative, and he excelled at everything, Glaspie said — academics, basketball, football, baseball, even chess. Sports meant everything to him. Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was his idol. And he was a Kansas City Chiefs fan, even though his whole family was rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles during this year's Super Bowl.

He had goals of giving back to his high school after graduating. He wanted to become an athletic director and help expand the school’s athletics. But his dream was to one day open up his own facility and develop the future generation of athletes.

“He was going to do that,” Glaspie said. She had no doubts. Allen was dedicated, committed. He believed in himself. He loved hard.

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Allen had the best qualities of his mother — he was powerful, purposeful, empathetic.

But Allen himself was special, Glaspie said. He was a fighter for the underdog, a leader. He cared about social justice issues.

She’ll miss the way he’d know when she came home from work with the weight of the world, and give her a big hug and a kiss. She’ll miss how excited he was for his 3-year-old nephew to get into sports.

Allen’s childhood friend, Malori Saddler, 18, said he was someone those around him looked up to.

“He was joyful, he just smiled all his life. He just was happy. Even when bad stuff happened, he was still always smiling,” Saddler said.

“And he took care of people. He took care of me, so much. Anything I needed — when I had no where to be, I was staying at his house. When I didn’t have money, he was buying me food. He cared for everybody.”

Saddler thinks Allen was just at the wrong place at the wrong time when he was killed.

“People are saying he was moving too fast, doing stuff he wasn’t supposed to do. But he never did stuff he wasn’t supposed to do. He didn’t deserve this — no matter who he hanged with, no matter who he rapped about. He just didn’t deserve this,” she said.

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Glaspie said she doesn’t want her son to die for nothing. She wants to fight against gun violence. She wants her son, and his legacy, to be remembered by saving lives.

“I spent the last 18 years spending every day of my life pouring into my son’s life. Now I’m about to spend the next, however many years God gives me, pouring into his legacy,” she said.

“We don’t have to lose another kid, another mother doesn’t have to feel the way I’m feeling. I can't breathe."

'How many more?'

At Allen's vigil at University High School Academy on Friday, members of Allen's family and community activists begged the question:

"How many more?"

They wondered what color balloons will be at the next vigil, because there will almost certainly be another vigil, they said.

"Gun violence, we talk about it every single day in the city of Detroit. Gun violence, young people. Gun violence, young people. Gun violence, young people. As I stand here today, I grieve and mourn (Allen), but I'm worried about you," said Marvin Cotton Jr., a community activist and mentor to Allen.

He was speaking to the youths at the vigil, which drew about a hundred of Allen's loved ones who gathered to honor him, many weeping and holding one another close.

Honor Allen's life by doing the right thing, by looking out for each other, making better decisions, telling each other "no," Cotton Jr. said. Allen's life meant so much more than balloons and T-shirts and candles.

"Gun violence stops when we all stand up and say 'enough is enough,' " Cotton Jr. said. "If this hurts, if this hurts you — you have a duty to help stop this."

Allen's father, Brandon Allen, also pleaded and begged those at the vigil to make better decisions. "We're killing each other, when we need to love on each other," he said.

"It's not a video game, you don't have another man — my son died. That's a generation."

Brandon Allen, 51, used to tell his son, who he nicknamed "Sonny Boy," all the time: "I need you, I need you, man."

Now he's left to thank God for the 18 years he did have with his son, and left to wonder what his son's life could have been.

How to help

Allen’s family has created a GoFundMe to help raise funds for the funeral. To donate, go to https://gofund.me/b4864d0f.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at 313-264-0442, asahouri@freepress.com or on Twitter @andreamsahouri.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Southfield teen Khalil Allen fatally shot just before starting college