NOT LONG AFTER 2 p.m. on August 2, Xavier was home when Mary got a call from the mother of one of his friends.
“One of Edward’s sons just got shot at their grandma’s house!” the voice said in a panic.
Mary, with a confused look on her face, repeated the message out loud. And repeated it again. Edward was the name of Deante’s dad.
Xavier stepped outside and called Deante’s cousin.
“He was hysterical,” Xavier recalled. “It kind of hit me what was going on.”
“He didn’t make it, he didn’t make it!” the cousin said over and over.
As Xavier was outside, Mary reached someone who confirmed that Deante was in the hospital. As she came outside to deliver the news, Xavier walked toward her and his younger sister to deliver his. He looked up and shook his head. No words were needed.
“It was like life stopped at that moment,” Xavier said. “All three of us … we literally crumbled on the front yard.”
Portland police had responded to reports of a shooting in a home. They found Deante, getting ready for football practice, had been shot in his chest at his grandmother’s house – a family gathering place. His grandmother and aunt also were shot.
A wounded Deante escaped and sought help from contractors at a construction site across the street. They gave him CPR as he lay bleeding.
His grandmother and aunt survived. Tragically, Deante, 22, did not.
Deante’s half-sister, Tamena, whose name was tatooed on Deante’s wrist, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder and attempted murder. The motive for the shooting is unknown.
Cameron was at football practice at Stanford when Mary Hallinan called Suzy. As Suzy pushed through rush hour traffic to reach Mary’s house, she considered how to break the news to Cameron. He needed to hear it from her and before he could pick up his phone and see dozens of messages about his friend’s death.
Knowing Shaw and running backs coach Ron Gould were on the field, Suzy reached out to Mike Eubanks, the director of recruiting and football relations.
“What would you like me to do?” Eubanks asked.
Suzy said she wanted Cameron to finish practice. Deante would want it that way. Shaw and Gould were alerted. As practice wound down, Cameron was called over. He knew something was wrong before he put Eubanks’ phone to his ear.
“Hi Cameron,” said Suzy, trying valiantly not to lose her cool in front of her son.
“Mom, what’s wrong? Just tell me!”
“I have terrible news to share with you, and I’m so sorry I have to do it over the phone …”
Cameron was stunned. Shocked. He returned to the field to stretch, his mind in a haze. Teammates slowly came by to pat him on the back, or gave him hugs. Gould told Scarlett he would do anything for him, whatever was needed.
Ava Lias-Booker, the mother of sophomore defensive end Thomas Booker, was at practice that day and noticed the commotion around Cameron. She approached him and asked if anything was wrong. He broke down in her arms.
“I am so thankful she was there, to be a momma to him for a little while,” Suzy said.
The Hallinans’ house became a meeting place for Deante’s friends in the wake of the shooting.
“He was a big brother to my siblings,” Xavier said. “He was a son to my mom. He was a lifelong brother to me. Anything Deante needed, I was there for him. Anything I needed, Deante would give his all for me. We became men together, honestly.”
At Tamena Strickland’s arraignment, her attorney, Robert Crow, told KGW8 TV that the family is confused by what happened, and is grieving the loss of both Deante and Tamena.
“You saw a courtroom full of family supportive of both Tamena and Deante,” he said. “This family is going through, ‘We tragically lost a son, a brother, a nephew, a cousin, but also a daughter, a niece, a cousin is in custody for killing him.’ They are two different things, [but they're both] tragic, looking at it.”
Even with the perspective of time, nothing about this makes sense.
“The guy was doing everything right,” Suzy said, still in disbelief. “He wasn’t in the wrong place. He was at his grandma’s house for Pete’s sake. Just the thought of the whole scene … all of it just breaks my heart. Every day is heartache.”
Cameron left camp for a few days to attend a memorial service at a packed arena at Portland State and to be pallbearer at the funeral. Xavier gave the eulogy.
“Every time we were around each other, it was always good times,” Cameron said. “He always encouraged me, he always supported me.
“I had to see my best friend in a casket. It’s changed me. It was the most traumatic and real experience I’ve ever had to deal with.”
Shaw said Scarlett “has handled this as well as you can possibly handle it. He’s got really good close friends on this football team who he was able to talk to and provide him support.”
Just as Deante’s smile and laugh will be a powerful memory, so was his toughness and determination -- qualities that Cameron was bent on displaying before the tragedy, but even moreso since.
“Every day, I try to have a little piece of Deante inside of me,” Cameron said. “I saw the greatness he had inside of him, and how he attacked every day. That’s what Deante would want me to do.”
Deante can’t play ball anymore, so Cameron and Xavier do it for him, in his honor and in his name. It’s the wrong ending to a beautiful story, but it will have to do.
