SUFFOLK, Va. — Education about gangs and gang violence must start early in life, and it must happen at home.
That's the message from those who advocate against violence in Hampton Roads.
News 3's Jay Greene talked with Joan Turner who lost her son, Quantez Russell to gang violence.
Turner said it all started when she noticed changes in his clothing in middle school.
In middle school, she noticed her son's favorite color change from blue to red.
"He wanted everything to have Michael Jordan on it because it was the red hat brim...it was the white shoes with the red Nike symbol," she said. "Everything was red and I didn't understand why."
Things progressed as her son got older and entered high school.
Turner said her son would cut up squares of soap, and put them in plastic baggies into his backpack that he would use for playing basketball. It's where Russell kept at least $800 from selling imitation crack cocaine at Lakeland High School.
Turner, who has held careers in the law enforcement field, later learned it was related to gang activity.
"I said 'Not my child, my child would never be involved in gangs'," Turner said. "I didn't know he was being bullied in middle school, and I didn't know that he was asked to being part of a gang."
In November 2015, Russell went missing.
Turner said she got a call he had been shot in Newport News, but there was no body. She believed his body had been dumped into the James River.
In March 2024, Turner said a judge officially declared Russell deceased though his body was never found.
Turner, who is now a community outreach coordinator for the Suffolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, is using this story to teach communities about the dangers of gang violence.
"I truly love my baby," she said. "Would love to hug him and just get that last kiss from him."
Turner, along with law enforcement representatives, spoke during a presentation Wednesday at King's Fork High School in Suffolk. It was part of a series, focused on youth violence prevention. This session focused on gangs.
While the meeting was lightly attended, it did touch on some heavy topics like signs that someone could be involved in a gang or changes in behavior.
There were also painted portraits of those who had been killed through gang violence. Students from across Suffolk painted them under the leadership
of Tray Burch, an intervention specialist at Lakeland High School.
"One of my classmates at Lakeland High School was shot when he was a student at one of the local apartment complexes in our city, so i felt it was really important to speak out on issues like this so we can see change," Birch told Greene.
Eugene Swinson is the director and co-founder of Big Homies, a gun violence prevention and outreach organization based in Portsmouth.
He told News 3's Jay Greene that parents must pay attention to their kids and that violence prevention needs to start at home.
"I think the kids are being influenced really by what they see in the neighborhoods. You're seeing kids as young as 10 and 11 years old acting like they reppin' these gangs because it's in their neighborhood," Swinson said.
In 2021, Swinson's organization focused on neighborhoods in Portsmouth that were impacted by gun violence, and he developed Lil' Homies, an enrichment group for kids.
"We pick these kids up from targeted neighborhoods—Southside, London Oaks, Dale's Home—we pick them up from school five days a week and they come straight to us," he said. "We do that to try to curb some of the behavior
and some of the influences they see in the neighborhood."
The idea is to get in touch with younger generations before they're exposed to gang activity.
He said parents need to be involved in their children's lives, from social media to the music they choose to the clothes they wear to the video games the play.
"In Robolox, you can actually go to a Blood neighborhood, you can go to a Crip neighborhood and ride around the city of Chicago doing gang-related stuff all on Roblox," he said.
Back in Suffolk, Joan Turner echoes the need for parental involvement.
"When you see changes in someone and you're not sure why to just sit down with them and try to figure out why," she said. "If they need help, possibly try to get some help for them if you feel you can't get the help for them."
