ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
From member station KQED, Judy Campbell talks to one mother in Oakland who lost her son.
JUDY CAMPBELL: In September, 22-year-old Willy Tatman Jr.(ph) was shot to death at a neighborhood rec center after an argument over a basketball game. His mother, Aida Hancock(ph) got word quickly and rushed to the scene.
AIDA HANCOCK: I saw my son lying there and I saw him bleeding from his ankle. And I just walked up and I said, well, he's going to be all right. He's going to be okay. As I walked closer, I saw him bleeding from his heels area, and I still said, he's going to be okay. He's going to be okay. Then I saw him bleeding from the back of his shoulder, and I still said he's going to be okay. When I got up closer to my son and I leaned over him, and I saw the side of his head was bleeding. And I just immediately, as parent, as a mother, just screamed and completely lost it. It was over a basketball game.
CAMPBELL: Even though the gym was full of people who witnessed the crime, the murder case is still open. The police say there is a suspect in custody. Hancock said she understands why people don't come forward.
HANCOCK: That's the kind of life we live now, is you're scared to say anything, you're scared to go out your door, you're scared to go to the store, you're scared to walk to your mailbox, and even more so, scared to say something about the crimes that happen because something is going to happen to you as well.
CAMPBELL: Willy Tatman was the third of Hancock's four boys. She said he was the son she was closest to. People would mistake them for brother and sister, the way they laugh together, and were such good friends. He was funny, his mom says, but he was scared of the violence from the street; he didn't like to go out much. He held two jobs to support his 3-year-old son. Hancock says trying to stay cheery for her grandson keeps her from indulging in her own despair. But she still runs that last day of her son's life over and over in her head and can't find a way to explain it.
HANCOCK: If I could struggle to raise four boys and make them understand violence is not the way, drugs is not the way, abuse is not the way. If one mother can do it with four children on her own, other parents need to do the same as well with one child, two child, six child, seven child, or how many kids you have.
CAMPBELL: For NPR News, I'm Judy Campbell.