Sixteen-year-old Raphael Sadonte Ward, Jr., played shortstop on his Lower East Side baseball team and dreamed of wearing Yankee pinstripes one day.
The 6-foot-1 teen known for his comedic prowess had a trademark throw to make a double play: he’d casually flip the ball to first base behind his back.
“’Behind the back toss,’ that’s what we called it,” recalled Raphael’s teammate, Jaymes Blanco, 18.
Raphael now has another distinction: he was the first youth murdered in the city this year - shot a block away from where he lived with his mother and little brother in The Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side.
Baseballs and handwritten messages scrawled with love accumulated along Columbia Street near Rivington Street where he was approached by a group who shot him once in the chest on January 4.
Raphael’s mother, Arlene Delgado, 34, recently sat in her living room gazing at the computer screen as her son belted out Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror in a video that showcases Raphael’s animated facial expressions.
"This was Raphael,” she said. “He was very playful. You know, he was too young to take anything so serious. Nothing was serious enough for him.”
As a single parent, she said she felt she had to be serious enough for the both of them. But he usually found ways to soften her.
“I could just finish disciplining him and he'll still grab me and hold me and he'll say, ‘Hug me back, Ma,’” she said. “’I always felt like he was trying to find the weak side of me. … He'd say, ‘Hug me back or I'm not letting you go,’ and I'd have to hug him back."
(Photo: Raphael played shortstop on many local teams over the years until he grew too tall and then switched to the outfield. Courtesy of Arlene Delgado)
At his school on West 50th Street, another memorial sprang up. Facing History School is where Raphael was known as both a class clown and a leader.
“I think he was trying to figure out which side to show at any one time," said his former freshman advisor Daniel Braunfeld, who said Raphael often set the tone for others in the classroom.
And although boisterous at times, his humor had depth to it, Braunfeld said.
Raphael’s mother said she began a new life when she got pregnant with him at 17. She now works for a hospital network as a financial representative and is in her third semester at La Guardia Community College, getting a business degree.
Delgado said the only thing that makes sense is to perform community service in Raphael's name. She’s considering opening a community center for teens to give them a place to hang out without the threat of violence.
"I’m going to save my son’s friend that’s what I’m going to do,” she said, resolutely. “Mommy's going to save your friends. You loved them? I'm going to embrace them."
A 16-year old who lives a few blocks away has been arrested in connection with the murder. Police say they're still seeking the other suspects.
WNYC is profiling the life of every child in the city killed by gunfire in our series In Harm’s Way.
Kathleen Horan is a staff reporter for New York Public Radio, covering the criminal justice beat. She also reports the series In Harm’s Way, a multi-platform effort to profile the life of every child in New York City killed by gunfire.
Comments [6]
es destiny n when i heard about my boos family i said eh i didnt kw what happned at the moment n said eh i was at home cooking n talkinh to his mother n sayin eh que paso papi eh knowin my man hes always grindin n at work n to who jonathan is? i eman it was crazy seein n hearin about what happened i said eh im en la casa like eh papi call me when i get from work n hearn about a jonathan? i said eh he always sitin n park spots on rudgerd he was unemployed looking for a job the last time i heard afrom darky sparky gorilla n said eh es about bein here as by ya family side no matter what as my man to his family bein there means alot ? for a jacket a mormont ? omg anyhow when it comes to me i aint wit dat drama but i said eh hes my papi n im here by my man cause hes my boo! anyways es destiny rodriguez from santo domingo Y proud!
Thanks to Kathleen Horan for a story that is usually not told. As one of the listeners commented, it's these daily, one at a time tragedies that we are not hearing. I have been glad to hear the President refer to this in the last months. Especially in NY and other big cities we have to insist on a new "ticker tape" on this violence. Without the evidence we have become to willing to write it all as street and gang violence that is "inevitable" in certain areas. We can do better.
While the public and (some) politicians are galvanized -- for now -- by mass tragedies like Sandy Hook Elementary, the endless tragedy of children being murdered one at a time gets scarcely a whisper in the media. One child. One family left bereft. One child murdered with an illegal weapon obtained all too easily by those with no other intent than to do harm. But it happens day in and day out, and if the public and our so-called leaders were hammered day in and day out with the news of each child's death, maybe then we'll get to the point where something is actually done to stop the all-to-easy flow of weapons caused by inadequate laws, laws that are wildly inconsistent between states, laws that foster the availability and flow of weapons. We must not just look to the headline-grabbing obvious horrors for an incentive to force action, but to the insidious horror that eats away at our society one innocent child at a time.
Heartbreaking and senseless loss... our hearts go out to his family. Hope this deadlock on this gun madness will finally end.
i was one of rapheals main friends i was with him that thursday before fridays tragic incident we became close this year when we were put in two classes together we also found out that we have the same birthday and same year i brought him a slice and he walked down the street eatin and cuttin jokes he said come to the lowereast saturday then we did our handshake and i said see yu this weekend bro he said alrite
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hearing his voice singing and clowning around just made me break down crying this is unbelievable i miss him so much and i plan on joining the center when Ms.delgado opens it up
I really appreciate this reporting and hope you will follow up when the perpetrator is found.
Raphael Ward, you had a wonderful smile.
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