OAKLAND — A California mother has asked that no retaliation occur after her two teenage sons were shot and killed within three weeks just blocks from her home.
Dinyal New made her plea on Monday after laying flowers at a makeshift memorial at the site where her 19-year-old son Lamar Broussard and a friend were shot and killed on Sunday.
"I want to see this in the courts. I want retaliation through the court system," New said. "Please, no retaliation."
New's other son, 13-year-old Lee Weathersby III, was shot about a mile away on New Year's Eve. He died the next day.
"I have no more kids," New, 41, said as she pleaded for witnesses who may know anything about the killings to contact police.
"Hopefully the community and people will come forward because how can a mother experience two losses within 19 days of both her kids?" New said. "It's horrible."
No arrests have been made in the shootings, Oakland police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said Tuesday. On Monday, investigators were looking into the possibility that the slayings were linked.
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"They were good boys, both of them," Lee Weathersby Jr., who is Lee Weathersby III's father and Broussard's stepfather, said Monday. "We're not supposed to be burying our children. It's supposed to be the other way around. They're supposed to looking out for us."
Lee Weathersby III, described by family as an avid basketball player and drummer for his school band, was shot on Dec. 31 as he walked home from a party at a nearby Boys & Girls Club.
On Sunday, Broussard and friend, Derryck Harris, 19, were killed while riding in Broussard's Audi.
Broussard was a college student who aspired to be a musician and start his own business, New said. Harris' mother, Tameka Rothchild of Oakland, said she was in shock.
"I love my son and unfortunately people out here are heartless and they have no type of morals, no type of values," Rothchild said. "They don't care about a human being."
Sunday's killings were Oakland's fourth and fifth of 2014. The city had 92 homicides last year, down from 131 in 2012 and the lowest since 2004.
