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November 18, 2002
Friends gather, mourn 'Gooche'
By Mike Nguyen and Joe Keo
Surrounded
by a group of friends and family on the front steps of Dupont Funeral Home
recently, Lanita Thomas couldn’t remember even one bad moment with her
murdered younger brother.
"Every memory was a good memory. There wasn't a bad memory with him," Thomas said.
Thomas
and hundreds of friends, family and classmates of her brother, Anthony
“Gooche” Thomas, gathered to mourn Thomas. He died of a single stab wound
inflicted during an Oct. 11 fight at a party at the Sunnydale Avenue home of
Nicole Boss, a 15-year-old Bristol
A
former
But Thomas’ friends and family members said Thomas intervened to break up an argument between Barrett and Matt Myers, another Central student.
Thomas was remembered by many for standing up for people in distress.
"That
was my chillin' partner. He was my bodyguard. Everywhere I went, there he
was," Lanita Thomas said.
Samantha
and Joyce McLellan, cousins of the Thomas’, remembered his basketball games at
the Racquet Club, winter snowball fights, his big laugh and "his big
afro."
"He
was the nicest guy," said Samantha McLellan. "He was a role model to
everyone."
Mark
Paparello, a sophomore at Central, said he was glad to see the huge turnout for
Thomas at his wake, but was disappointed it took something so tragic to make
people appreciate him.
"It
doesn't feel the same going back to class without him, not at all,"
Paparello said.
According
to Paparello, an argument over a dent in a car sparked Thomas' stabbing. The
dispute between Barrett and Myers happened in Bosse’s garage while her parents
were out of town.
The
cousins said that when Barrett hit Myers with the butt of a butter knife, Thomas
tried to intervene.
McLellon, who was attended the party, said Thomas hit Barrett with a broomstick in hopes of breaking up the fight, but was stabbed in the lungs during the melee.
Barrett’s
family has said that the accused murderer acted in self-defense.
For his friends and family, Thomas’ death leaves a deep sadness.
"It's
going to be hard to forget him,” Jose Galindo, a senior at Central, said.
“He was a big dude. I can't see the big dude anymore."
Fawn Newburry, a sophomore at Central, echoed the sentiment.
"He
would've done anything for anyone," Newburry said. "He could be in the
worst mood and still walk up
to somebody and hug a person that was upset."
Newburry
said she and Thomas were close friends who sat together at lunch everyday.
In tears, she said, "He died a hero."
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© 2002 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved. |
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