Reggie Gemeille, then and now
I scanned the news stories at lunch the other day when I found one about a beating death of Pier Munoz-Chinos. Police arrested a kid named Wedjunald “Reggie” Gemeille who is 18 years old. He looks pretty “hard” in his booking photo, doesn’t he?
Occasionally I like to see what I can find out about suspects, so I did a quick Internet search on Reggie. As he has a pretty uncommon name it turns out it wasn’t difficult to track him down. Soon I found his MySpace page and his Facebook page, including photos and his self-provided bio.
The photos on these pages show a very different Reggie Gemeille than the one depicted in his booking photo. Here I see a kid trying to figure out who he is. In some, he’s dressing up and posing for the camera. In others, he’s clowning around with his younger cousins. He doesn’t look like a bad kid at all. He looks like any other kid with big dreams.
Then I scroll further down his MySpace page. Reggie went to Millbrook High School but apparently didn’t graduate. I think about the spate of arrests he’s had. Crime stats show that dropping out of school often leads to a life of crime. In the span of five short months, Reggie was arrested for assault and battery, shoplifting and larceny, larceny, and now first-degree murder. Before February, he had apparently stayed out of trouble for two full years after a few simple assault charges in late 2007 and early 2008. This was a kid who made some mistakes but looked destined to stay on the right path. Then for some reason he changed and apparently threw his lot in with a bad crowd. Reggie’s brother Mario is spending his time in college while Reggie might soon be spending his time in prison.
What can we do for kids like Reggie Gemeille? Why didn’t Reggie stay in school? What might have made the difference for Reggie? Who might have made the difference for Reggie? Where were his parents, his coaches, and his mentors?
Reggie is of course innocent until proven guilty but there’s no doubt that he’s been charged with a very serious crime: a charge that would never have happened had he not been at wrong place at the wrong time.
It troubles me to see kids give up.