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They Killed My Cousin

Sorry for the lack of updates, if you know me, you know I've been CRAZY busy lately.

But here's something I'd been wanting to speak on for a long time. My cousin was murdered almost 2 weeks ago. He got stabbed up & found on the lawn of an empty house. Now I didn't know him all that well, but his father was my father's brother, so it still hits really close to home.

EAST ST. LOUIS -- An East St. Louis man police have been holding for a couple of days in connection with the slaying Friday of Cornelius Goss Jr. was charged Wednesday afternoon.
Darrell Darrough, 25, is charged with the first-degree murder of Goss. The St. Clair County state's attorney's office issued the charge against him shortly after 3 p.m. Bail for Goss is set at $1 million, East St. Louis Detective Mike Floore said. The motive, Floore said, was "the victim touched the suspect's girlfriend inappropriately."

Police were called to 761 N. 79th St. by a man who had come to work on the vacant house there. When police arrived, they found Goss' body lying at the side of the house. He had been stabbed multiple times.

He was pronounced dead at 10:06 a.m. by St. Clair County Deputy Coroner Ace Hart.

News of the arrest and the charge made Goss's mother, Jacqueline Goss, "feel so good." She had nothing but praise for the work done by the East St. Louis Police Department.

She said she knows that no matter what punishment her son's killer is dealt, it won't bring her son back to life. This, she said, saddens her beyond words.

"He was a good person. He didn't have to kill him," she said.

Goss is the second son Jacqueline Goss has lost to the streets of East St. Louis.

She said she is still hoping police find the person who took the life of her other son, Deandre Lawrence, in 2005 outside a store on 115th Street and Broadway Avenue.

Jacqueline Goss said losing a child is very hard, and she prays that young black males stop killing each other.

She said the pain a mother feels as a result of someone taking her child's life is almost unbearable.

She said she cannot ask for the death penalty against her son's murderer, but she doesn't want him to get out of jail and have the opportunity to kill any other mother's child.

Nash Funeral Home is officiating the funeral for Goss. A wake is set for 10 a.m. Friday at the Church of Christ in Centreville, just off Old Church Road. The funeral will follow.

Goss' sister Tequilla Smith, 30, said she wants her brother's killer to know he killed a good person.

"Two days before he was killed, he was laying on my bed talking about his plans to return to school to get his GED. ... He was making good changes in his life," Smith said. "He shouldn't have been done like he was. He would never have taken a knife and cut anyone. And he wouldn't have taken a knife and cut somebody up the way he was cut up."

*sigh* I don't even know what's worse…the fact that I lost a relative, that another (young) black man was murdered for a dumb reason, or that in a few weeks a life becomes nothing more than another statistic (word to Omar Little).

I'm a big fan of the First 48 on A&E. Homicide detectives from Miami, Detroit, Cincinnati, & Memphis (the best squad, EASILY) try to get leads & eventually solve the case within the First 48 hours of the crime. 9 times out of 10 the murdered or the murderer is a minority, whether that be black, or an illegal citizen, whatever. But what's worse is that is they're young. REALLY young…this weekend's episode had a 16 year old boy that got murdered. SIXTEEN?!?!?! Word?!?!?! Whenever there's a case where the persons are younger than me (which is almost always, and I'm only 23) I always think about what I was doing at that time. 16 years old?? I was skipping class to go to the mixtape shop & buy CDs, I was working at Wal-Mart trying to save money to buy a Playstation 2, I was trying to make the JV basketball team….real insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but at that time it consumed me. Murder wasn't even on my mind back then. Even though I did hang with some, I guess you could say "killers & thugs", but even then, I can count on one hand how many times I truly felt like my life was in danger.

Ever since I can remember, I've heard "America's the greatest nation in the world", it must not be much competition nowadays. Living in Japan for 2 years, they are obviously happy with where they are, I mean, where else can you go where people seem truly excited about working at McDonalds?? Now granted America IS a great country, BUT…I still gotta worry about my little brother getting killed at his middle school dance, or my daughter getting touched by some perverted grown man in the 3rd grade, just exactly how great IS this nation?? Maybe Wright was right…God damn America?? Maybe our nation is still great, its just that man has messed it up for everybody (as usual)

Forgive me for my negative outlook, pray for a new set of eyes so I can see the world in a new light.

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