Tauris

If you think the murder of a 10-year-old gunned down while playing football in the street is a horror, the preacher said, "You ain't seen nothing yet."Honorary Pastor Bennie Myrick eulogized Tauris Johnson yesterday and damned the society that failed the boy. He said he did not mourn so much for Tauris as he did the violent city the boy left behind.And in advance, he grieved for the children who will surely follow Tauris to early graves.It is a world, he said, going "down, down, down."Tauris was shot in the head last Thursday near the corner of Regester and Oliver streets.

Kemba's Nightmare," they call it......Kemba is Kemba Smith, winner of the Victim Sweepstakes for 1997. Emerge magazine did a feature story on Smith in May 1996, giving details of her sordid relationship with a crack cocaine dealer. The relationship ended with Smith doing a mandatory minimum of 24 years in federal prison for her involvement in the heel's drug ring.Liberals, whiners and bleeding hearts went into collective apoplexy. Kemba's sentence, they screamed, was an injustice. Her involvement in the drug ring was minimal.

Kemba's Nightmare," they call it......Kemba is Kemba Smith, winner of the Victim Sweepstakes for 1997. Emerge magazine did a feature story on Smith in May 1996, giving details of her sordid relationship with a crack cocaine dealer. The relationship ended with Smith doing a mandatory minimum of 24 years in federal prison for her involvement in the heel's drug ring.Liberals, whiners and bleeding hearts went into collective apoplexy. Kemba's sentence, they screamed, was an injustice. Her involvement in the drug ring was minimal.

The girl, about 10, walked over to the steps of the abandoned and boarded-up house and wept unashamedly."He was my cousin," she wailed. In the street -- the first block of S. Carey St., to be exact -- a round-faced boy of about 8 and wearing a knit cap cried loudly. The grown-ups around them had gathered for a march and candlelight vigil for James Smith III, killed at the age of 3 when two idiots who couldn't shoot worth a tinker's damn turned the Fresh Cuttz Barbershop into the O.K. Corral.

Ten-year-old Tauris Johnson loved throwing a football on the street outside his East Baltimore home. Today, his family will bury him with one.But his father must make a choice between the football he was playing with when he was gunned down five days ago and a cherished ball donated to his memory yesterday by Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer Lenny Moore."

Standing only a few steps from where 10-year-old Tauris Johnson was shot a year ago today, the woman who raised him can't bring herself to look at the spot.As she waved to old neighbors and talked easily about her family's new life in Randallstown, Juanita Belle's aversion to the corner of Regester and Oliver streets was a sign of the trauma that remains.But Ms. Belle said she has been comforted by dreams in which Tauris has spoken to her."He told me, 'Move on,' " she said yesterday. "He didn't die for nothing; he died for us. People need to look out for their kids."

Precious Johnson discovered the spelling certificate yesterday morning while going through her little brother's clothing. She wasn't searching for anything in particular. She simply wanted to feel him close to her.Tauris' spelling certificate puzzled her at first. "He never showed it to me, and he showed me everything," Precious, 14, said. Then she understood, and it pierced her heart. Ten-year-old Tauris had received the certificate at school only the day before. "He'd never had the chance to show it to me," she said.

Murder charges against a New York parolee stemming from the East Baltimore shooting death of 10-year-old Tauris Johnson have been dropped by the city state's attorney, but the man remains jailed on federal drug charges.Baltimore State's Attorney Stuart O. Simms confirmed yesterday that his office allowed the murder charge against Nathaniel J. Dawson to be dismissed at Friday's preliminary hearing. He declined to give the reason, maintaining that the case was being pursued "with vigor."Sgt.

Lamenting that he could not impose the death penalty, a federal judge yesterday ordered four life sentences for the drug dealer whose loyal followers gunned down 10-year-old Tauris Johnson and a woman who witnessed the East Baltimore slaying."

Although Tauris Johnson's killer probably lives in the neighborhood and at least a half-dozen people saw him gun down the 10-year-old boy, no one has been volunteering information to detectives, Baltimore police said yesterday."

Lamenting that he could not impose the death penalty, a federal judge yesterday ordered four life sentences for the drug dealer whose loyal followers gunned down 10-year-old Tauris Johnson and a woman who witnessed the East Baltimore slaying."

Standing only a few steps from where 10-year-old Tauris Johnson was shot a year ago today, the woman who raised him can't bring herself to look at the spot.As she waved to old neighbors and talked easily about her family's new life in Randallstown, Juanita Belle's aversion to the corner of Regester and Oliver streets was a sign of the trauma that remains.But Ms. Belle said she has been comforted by dreams in which Tauris has spoken to her."He told me, 'Move on,' " she said yesterday. "He didn't die for nothing; he died for us. People need to look out for their kids."

Mary Alicia Personeus was not on the street the day 10-year-old Tauris Johnson died in a cross-fire between two drug gangs. And she never heard the shots that killed Latisha Murphy, a witness to Tauris' shooting who was later executed to protect the gang.But as the girlfriend of an alleged gang lieutenant, Ms. Personeus wasprivy to details of both crimes. Yesterday, she offered what even one defense lawyer characterized as the "smoking gun" testimony against the four defendants, including Nathaniel Dawson Jr., the alleged leader of the drug gang, and his father, Nathaniel Dawson Sr., who is accused as the trigger man in Ms. Murphy's killing.

In her 20 minutes before a federal grand jury last January, Latisha Murphy identified the men she knew as drug dealers and described their role in a gunfight two months earlier that left 10-year-old Tauris Johnson dead.As she finished, a jury member asked a personal question: Was she afraid?"Yeah," she said, in her last comment to the group. "I think they're going to kill us one day when it's all over with."One month later, two bullets were fired execution-style into her head as she stepped from her East Baltimore house to buy cigarettes.

Murder charges against a New York parolee stemming from the East Baltimore shooting death of 10-year-old Tauris Johnson have been dropped by the city state's attorney, but the man remains jailed on federal drug charges.Baltimore State's Attorney Stuart O. Simms confirmed yesterday that his office allowed the murder charge against Nathaniel J. Dawson to be dismissed at Friday's preliminary hearing. He declined to give the reason, maintaining that the case was being pursued "with vigor."Sgt.

City police said yesterday that a woman slain execution-style in East Baltimore would have been a witness in the trial of a New York man charged with killing Tauris Johnson, the 10-year-old boy cut down by a stray bullet fired by warring drug dealers.The witness, Latisha Regina Murphy, 34, was shot twice in the face at point-blank range about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, moments after leaving her home in the 1700 block of Crystal Ave. to buy cigarettes, police said.Investigators said yesterday that Ms. Murphy had witnessed Tauris' death on Nov. 4 and that she was scheduled to testify against the child's alleged killer, Nathaniel Dawson, 24, of New York City.

A Govans man who was shot in the head near his home Saturday became the 300th homicide victim in Baltimore this year.Police reported no arrests yesterday in that killing, or two others since Thursday -- including that of 10-year-old Tauris Johnson, who was caught in the cross-fire of a gunbattle in his Eastside neighborhood.Victim No. 300, Earl Wiggins, was shot in the back yard of a vacant house in the 500 block of Beaumont Ave., a short distance from his own home between 2:30 and 3:30 Saturday afternoon, a city homicide detective said.

Rubble-strewn alleys along Regester Street between East Oliver and Federal streets in East Baltimore were devoid of life yesterday -- the drug dealers had all but disappeared.But so had the neighborhood residents, who kept a low profile in the wake of the shooting Thursday that claimed the life of 10-year-old Tauris Johnson.An eerie calm fell on several blocks in the vicinity of the 1700 block of E. Oliver St., leaving them virtually deserted whileresidents remained behind locked doors.Life was far from normal.

A paroled New York drug dealer has been arrested in the slaying of Tauris Johnson, the 10-year-old East Baltimore boy whose Nov. 4 death in a cross-fire of bullets symbolized the victimization of innocent people by heavily armed drug dealers warring for turf.During Wednesday's arrest of Nathaniel Dawson, 24, at a Bronx apartment, police and federal agents seized 3 pounds each of cocaine and marijuana, as well as an arsenal of weapons -- including 11 handguns, a sawed-off shotgun and 3,000 rounds of ammunition, Baltimore police reported.

Although Tauris Johnson's killer probably lives in the neighborhood and at least a half-dozen people saw him gun down the 10-year-old boy, no one has been volunteering information to detectives, Baltimore police said yesterday."