Obituaries
Murder Victim's Father: 'That Kid Was a Good Kid All Around'
Two lifelong friend were shot and killed near the BART station on Monday. One had spoken out against gun violence.
OAKLAND, CA — Two former McClymonds High School students were identified as the two men shot and killed a few blocks from the MacArthur BART station in Oakland on Monday.
Roderick Trevon Godfrey and Deante Miller, both 19 years old, were killed at about 10:15 a.m. in the 700 block of 39th Street. One of them died there and the other was taken to a hospital but died later in the day.
Friends and family have posted numerous messages of grief and disbelief on Facebook and Twitter in the hours and days since their deaths.
They had grown up together in West Oakland, where Godfrey went by Tra and Miller went by PeakABoo.
Since his graduation earlier this year, Godfrey had been working at UPS, according to his father, who said he was too distraught to talk in detail about his son.
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"That kid was a good kid all around," the elder Godfrey said.
Trevon Godfrey had participated in a town hall meeting on gun violence with U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee earlier this year at the Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church on 12th Street in Oakland.
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"In 2015 I lost about eight friends, that was probably the worst year of my life," Godfrey said at the meeting.
He said that he was nervous to come down to the area where the church was that morning because one of his friends had been shot just down the street.
"Just to know that I'm scared to come to a certain place ... I don't think it's right," Godfrey said, before breaking down in tears. He was sitting next to Lee, who comforted him.
Lee released a statement Tuesday regarding Godfrey's death. Godfrey "lost his life to the senseless violence he was working to prevent," Lee said. "My thoughts and prayers are with the family of Treyvon during this difficult time."
Godfrey had previously spoken out on gun violence in the high school newspaper, where as a sophomore he was quoted as saying, "It 's too much black on black violence ... Too many kids are finding it easy to get
guns and taking (other) teens' lives."
Oakland police have released no information about a possible suspect or motive in the case and have not responded to repeated requests to confirm the identities of the two victims.
A third man was killed later on Monday, only about 10 blocks from where Godfrey and Miller were killed, in the city's 76th homicide of the year.
— Bay City News; Image by Renee Schiavone, Patch