The Daily - The Lives They Lived

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

This episode contains descriptions of violence. At the end of every year, The New York Times Magazine devotes an issue to remembering those who have died in the past year.This year’s focus is gun violence, which is now the leading cause of death for American children, and the short lives that ended far too soon because of it.Today, we remember three of them: Lavonte’e Williams, Elijah Gomez and Shiway Barry.On today’s episode: The voices of Cheese, Shiway Barry's best friend; Crystal Cathcart, Elijah Gomez’s aunt, and his mother, Jennifer Cathcart; and Lavonte’e Williams’s mother, Miracle Jones, and Michael Jones and Tanika Jones, his grandparents.Background reading: A boy just baptized. A girl who just had her Sweet 16. These are the stories of 12 children killed by guns this year.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Every December, our colleagues at The Times Magazine devote an issue to remembering those who died during the previous year. We called him Lemonhead. He got his head shaped like a lemonhead. He was good at listening, like,

when I wanted to talk about something. He was just a wild child. I always called him my Tarzan because he had, like, when I wanted to talk about something. He was just a wild child. I always called him my Tarzan because he had, like, really long hair. With gun violence now the number one cause of death for American children, the magazine decided to remember those whose lives ended far too soon. He skipped the walking and crawling phase. He went straight to running. He ran everywhere.

Like, I never understood. I was like, why is he like this? I remember the day his voice changed and I heard him in the background. I'm like,

who is that in your house? Kids from every corner of the country. She was very shy, actually. She didn't want to sweet 16. He was telling me how he's like, yeah, I want to work out. I want to get taller.

A disproportionate number of them, black boys. He just had this big old smile. And when he smiled, it's like, you remember that, you know? Today, the stories of three of those children told not through their deaths, but through the lives that they lived. It's Wednesday, December 21st.

So, maybe I could just start by asking you when you met her and how you first met her. So I met her two years ago when I was around 12. Actually, it had just been my 12th birthday. In September of 2020, a 12-year-old boy in Indiana fired up his laptop so he could play his favorite video game. So I was on a Minecraft game, which is something that was probably a really big thing for me back then. And even now, I think I've spent most of my time on Minecraft. And within minutes, he found someone he'd never met before. So I got on and there was only two people on the server, me and another player named Guinea Pigard. So you might hear me referring to Shyway as Guinea a lot.

Because for a pretty big part of our friendship, I knew her as Guinea. Do people intend to keep their real names a secret or just like never came up? Do people intend to keep their real names a secret or just like never came up? Well, it never really came up because it's the Internet. No one really like goes around saying this is my real name. Hello. And what was your server name? So I was Cheese.

Any reason for that? I just like cheese. Cheese needed an ally that day. Guinea Pig Guard was 11, a year younger than him, and lived in Minnesota. He asked if she would be on his team. And she said yes. And that day, they won.

And so, over the next couple days, I would just like every once in a while message Guinea, hey, do you want to play Minecraft? Hey guys, welcome. It's me, Chase. With Guinea. Hello. Yeah. He began recording some of their games.

All right, so there's a skeleton down there. How much iron do you have? Twelve. The two of them found they were excellent teammates. I have 22. I have 21. We're pretty close. All right, so... Stick together, because, you know... Yeah. Like, at what point did you start to realize you liked this person, that it wasn't just somebody who happened to be on all the time? you liked this person, that it wasn't just somebody who happened to be on all the time. So it was probably about like a couple months after we had first like become friends. Mm hmm. And by then I had also introduced Ginny to a lot of my other friends. And I'm like,

wow, Ginny is very cool. All right, where are you? Here. Can I trust you? Yeah. It turned out they had a lot in common. So we both better had a bit of dark humor. It hasn't even been five minutes and we already have one death each.

I mean, what can you expect? It is us. We are very good at the game, aren't we? They bonded over the freedom the game gave them to be alternate versions of themselves. So the thing about being online is that you can have a certain personality online that you wouldn't really do in real life. Like being extremely violent in a video game. They relished the feeling of defeating an opponent, sometimes other players, but just as often, each other. I'm not taking blame for that because it was only retaliation.

It was. So originally, we were mostly talking in Minecraft chat. But then after a while, we started having voice calls because we're both like, yeah, I trust this person. Oh, wait, I just realized something. I can tell you where everything is. Oh, yeah. This could be the ultimate partnership. As the months went by, talking to Ginny became the way she started his day. One of the first things I do when I woke up is log on to Discord

and send her a message. And her voice was the last thing he heard before falling asleep. They talk about all kinds of things that had nothing to do with Minecraft. Me and Ginny definitely bonded a bit over the fact that we both had siblings who we were both very annoyed with at times. Such as having little sisters, who both happened to be Girl Scouts.

And they are so similar. So we're like, they're the same person. For a long time, Cheese didn't even know what Guinea's real name was or what she looked like. But eventually he found out that her name was Shyway. And that she was tall, with brown hair and glasses. And even though

they spent most of their time battling on Minecraft, Cheese started to get to know her tender side. In one of the only photos she ever sent him, she was nuzzling one of her pet guinea pigs. She mentioned her guinea pigs. She called them her rats.

Mm-hmm. That was the major thing that she talked about a bunch, wanting to be a veterinarian. He didn't really know anyone quite like her. The reason that her wanting to become a veterinarian. He didn't really know anyone quite like her. The reason that her wanting to become a veterinarian came up is because we were all bringing up like, what do you think you'd want your career to be? And I don't think most of the people had an idea of what they really wanted to be besides Guinea.

Did you ever say, like, you're my best friend or anything like that? It was just now and you didn't have to say it. So one day, it was like a truth or dare thing. We were asking, like,

who would you say is, like, your best friend out of this group? And me and Guinea are just like, uh, each other. And that's when we really clarified, like,

yes, we are best friends. Oh, which is its own thing, right? It's like, it's pretty amazing to be someone's best friend. Yeah.

Earlier this year, Cheese planned to go visit Guinea. He'd finally see her in person. They would meet in New York with their families, have some adventures IRL, as fun as the ones they had online. It was the thing that kept him going, knowing he'd meet her soon. He knew it would be just like it always was, only better.

He, this kid, like, for Christmas, he asked me to get him, like, a really nice PlayStation. I forgot whatever the number is right now, but it was... Last Christmas, Elijah Gomez begged his Aunt Crystal for the same thing that so many 14-year-old kids asked for that year, a PlayStation 5. And trust me, those PlayStations were hard to get because I tried. Hard to get and so expensive. And I was like, dude, are you kidding me? Crystal couldn't find a PlayStation 5 anywhere on the internet, but she did manage to get a used PlayStation 4. And when Elijah opened that gift on Christmas morning, she knew that it was worth it. For months, Elijah would stay up till 2 in the morning, playing Minecraft, Fortnite, laughing so loud that it woke up his mom.

And that was something I would just go nuts about, because he's just up playing the games, and I could hear him yelling. I used to always say, you sound like a little girl. He's just like screeching off the top of his lungs or like laughing. And it was crazy because Elijah had a really deep voice. Until one day, out of the blue. He asked me if I could take him to the pawn shop to pawn his PlayStation. And my sister got him that. So I told him, I was like, you got to tell Auntie Crystal because she is going to kill you. Elijah decided that he didn't want his PlayStation anymore.

And then he sold it a couple months ago because he was on his game too much and he just wanted to be outside. And like what 14-year-old is like, I'm playing video games too much. I need to be outside. Elijah was always outside. Elijah was always outside. Even in a freezing Connecticut winter, he'd often text his best friend, trying to convince him to get out the house. Like some days in the winter, Elijah would text and be like, let's go to the basketball court. And he's like, do you know how cold it is outside? I was like, I don't care. I want to be outside. It's great.

In part, this love of the outdoors was in his blood. Elijah's father was from a family of whalers in Cape Verde. His grandfather would take Elijah out on his boat and teach him how to fish. Sometimes he'd even let Elijah steer. Elijah would sit there, turn in a wheel, as if headed to somewhere he remembered. They had turned in a wheel as if headed to somewhere he remembered. I would take my boys and I would show them how, like, you can, like, speak back to the birds by, like, mimicking their whistle. Elijah's mom would take him and his brother out hiking.

I would show them, like, signs of animals that were around. So, like, there's, like, the fisher cats you got to look out for and the bobcats and stuff. So I would show them, like, markings on the trees or, like, certain footprints and stuff like that. On the way home, they walk along the railroad tracks and she'd teach Elijah how to kneel and place a hand on the ground to detect distant trains. The ones that could be felt but not heard. I think it was Elijah that found like a piece of iron that was for the railroad, I think. And it was like in the shape of a J and him knowing that my name was Jennifer,

he like gave it to me. But even for a family that spent a lot of time outside, Elijah's devotion to the outdoors and everything in it came as a surprise. He was infatuated with bees. And once he learned that bees were going extinct or could be going extinct, I forgot how his teacher put it, he was really big on educating people about that. One time, Elijah was sitting with another kid. They were sitting on the outside picnic table that was like for their age.

And I see Elijah just like moving his hands and his face was looking real serious and I'm thinking like they're arguing so I go outside I'm like what's going on and he's like I'm telling him about the bees I'm just like what that interest in bees did not diminish with time. Fast forward to a few years later, Elijah's YouTube was connected to my YouTube as the parents control. So it was kind of like he was embarrassed because when I went in his room, he kind of hid his phone. So I'm like, all right, bet.

So the video ended up coming onto my my youtube and he was actually watching a bee insemination on youtube and i was like who finds that so he must have been like looking up videos on youtube of like how to how to say the bees and that's what came up. And I watched the whole thing and I was just like, oh my God. Because it was like, it was a lot. Elijah paid attention to the world. His Aunt Crystal would take him to nature preserves.

And he spent his time picking up the debris that littered the earth. And he would just get so sad whenever there was trash on the ground. And people would throw entire apartments worth of stuff, all this huge stuff into the preserve. And he would be moved to almost cry because he was so sad to see like the earth treated so poorly. Elijah would walk along the preserve wearing his Avengers t-shirt and carrying a small plastic trash bag. With his slight arms and slender fingers, he'd collect bottle tops half buried in the sand. He'd reach into rock crevices to pull out bits of plastic foam. He'd pick up the torn pages of old homework that drifted over from a nearby school.

He'd take away all the things that he knew could kill the small fish that came in when the tide rose. Sometimes, he'd stumble on things that astonished him. Like the afternoon he found the television in the woods, sitting on the ground, the plug dangling behind it in the leaves. Elijah was transfixed by that image, as if some kids had ventured out and turned that cast-off television into an opportunity to imagine another world. We'll be right back. Hallelujah Every Sunday, Heaven's View Baptist Church in Lebanon, Tennessee

streams its services on Facebook. Hallelujah Hallelujah It's a small town church in a modest building, known for its intergenerational choir. In this one video from August, you can see the choir gathering in a semi-circle at the front of the sanctuary. They're dressed up in the colors they've chosen for that day, burnt orange and cream. The choir alternates between solemn hymns and lively gospel spirituals. They sway and clap in front of the congregation.

They sway and clap in front of the congregation. And at about the 21-minute mark, a five-year-old boy named Levante Williams walks up to the choir. He stands there between the microphones, leaning into his mom's waist as she sings and taps her feet. Levante, whose nickname is LJ, is not really sure what to do with his hands, so he just kind of swings them around and fans himself like the old folks do.

Eventually, the choir finds their seats and a guest pastor delivers that week's sermon. And after she's done, she invites anyone there who would like to be baptized to come up. We have any of us would like to be baptized to come up. And as a handful of church members step forward, out of the view of the camera, five-year-old LJ why he came forward, he announces, I want to be baptized and saved. Levante was from a religious family.

Tell me about his early life. And they told me that they weren't really surprised that LJ wanted to profess his faith. But he was not your average five-year-old. I've seen a lot of kids and kids his age, and he was an old soul. He was an old soul. LJ's parents and grandparents said he wasn't like other kids. He loved music and he loved listening to the word. And it's funny because he would take and recite back to you what, you know, either I said or another preacher said. And it's like, he was actually listening. He definitely wasn't your average child that, you know, is in church. You see most kids and they're either playing on their tablets, playing on somebody's phone or sleep.

LJ was up front and center in the choir stand singing with me and his aunties and everybody else. Are kids usually in the choir that young? No. I love you, Mommy. Yay! And I love you, Sissy, and I love you, Daddy. He had an older sister. They were inseparable, the older they got, you know,

where she went, he went, and vice versa. He was her protector, even though he was a year younger. You know, he didn't play about his sister at all. But somehow in his mind, he was still the big brother. It was hard for us to explain to him that, no, you're the little brother. And he would always say, I'm not little. I am a big boy.

It's like he didn't know he was five years old. And when they would come over, it's straight beeline, I'm not there, he's still running. And he runs upstairs and then he comes into the bedroom and he looks at me and he says, Hi, Pop-Pop, you feel okay today? And for someone to be so young, he was so caring. He was so caring. He was so caring. He wouldn't let me touch nothing. Mommy, put that bag down.

I got it. Okay. Okay. Right. No one had to teach this little boy any of that. It was almost like God said, poof, I'm putting him down there, and he's going to show them a different way. Yep. See you tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow.

I'll see you tomorrow. On August 14th, one week after he stepped forward, LJ went back to Heaven's View for his baptism. Most of his family was there. And when he saw his grandma, or Gigi as he liked to call her, she asked if he understood what it meant to be baptized. We talked about the purpose for baptism and what it stood for. I said, but you have to believe first he said I did I believe I believe that he died for me and he died for you and we're okay and I said yes sir and he did this weird little dance with his legs and was like I'm ready to go and I said do you have any questions and LJ said is is the water going to be cold? That's what he asked.

He said, is the water cold? Because, you know, I don't like cold water. He said, I don't like cold water. Can we put some heat in it? And I said, well, I don't think that's how it works, baby. It's not going to work, though. You wouldn't really know LJ was nervous from watching the service that day. I just want it. If you're able to clap your hands, clap your hands and make some noise for the Lord this morning.

As the choir in shades of yellow this time sings It's Your Season. There's LJ, back in his usual spot, bouncing around in front of his mom. He's hyped. Clapping his hands, jumping up and down, wearing a green shirt with a little yellow and black truck on it. And finally, toward the end of the service... It is time to go down into the water. Hallelujah. It's time for the baptism.

Take me to the water. Hallelujah. It's time for the baptism. Take me to the water. LJ changes into clothes that are okay to get wet and waits his turn. Eventually, the church deacon brings him forward and lowers him into a large black basin onto his knees. LJ looks around, unsure of himself. And then he breaks into tears. The water is very cold.

Brother Levante, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the precious name of the Holy Ghost, we indeed baptize you. The pastor dips him backward. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, amen. It happens in an instant. He says it's cold, but it's done, amen. The Lord says to chill my body, but not my soul. And with that, Brother Levante Williams is baptized. I decree in the name of Jesus that there are more people that's going to get baptized in the name of Jesus. With the cry of the Holy Ghost. On August 15th, the day after his baptism, Levante Williams accidentally shot himself at a park where he had gone to play basketball. He had just finished his first full day of kindergarten.

his first full day of kindergarten. Elijah Gomez was shot and killed on May 9th while walking home from school on a trail that passed by the homes of his mother and his aunt. He died surrounded by evergreen trees. He died surrounded by evergreen trees. Shyway Berry, or Guinea Pig Guard as she was known on Minecraft, was killed on April 20th at her home in Minnesota. Shyway, her little sister Sadie, and both of their parents were shot by a cousin who had once lived with their family.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. We'll be right back. legal battle to keep the documents confidential. The democratically controlled Ways and Means Committee said that the disclosure was necessary to highlight the failure of the Internal Revenue Service to audit Trump's returns while he was president, despite a program that makes such audits mandatory. Republicans called it a partisan move to try to embarrass Trump before their party takes over the House in January. Today's episode was narrated by writers and contributors to The Times Magazine. The essay on Shyway Berry was read by Susan Dominus and features the voice of Shyway's best friend, Cheese. The essay on Elijah Gomez was read by Dwayne Betts and features the voices of Elijah's aunt, Crystal Cathcart, and Mother, Jennifer Cathcart.

Finally, the essay on Levante Williams was read by Linda Villarosa and features the voices of Levante's mother, Miracle Jones, and grandparents, Michael and Tanika Jones. The episode was produced by Aastha Chaturvedi and Stella Tan. It was edited by Anita Bontha Chaturvedi and Stella Tan. It was edited by Anita Bonagio and Michael Benoit, contains original music by Alisha Ba'itub, Marion Lozano and Dan Powell, and sound design by Alisha Ba'itub.

It was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. Special thanks to Elena Silverman, Adrian Green, Brandy Martin, Tanisha Torres, Yaneli Henriquez, and Clay Hardy. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.