JB Podcast - Guilty Til Proven Innocent - The Zaire Wilson Story

What's Good Family!! Welcome back to Jimmy Bonds Podcast, your daily dose of inspiration and insight, airing Monday through Friday at 8AM to 10AM EST on Illadelphia Radio. Plus, catch us live on WPEB Radio 88.1FM (West Philadelphia) every Wednesday at 8PM! Visit illadelphiaradio.com for more details.

In our latest episode, we uncover a chilling tale of a wrongful accused teenager that left a community in shock. Zaire Wilson, was caught in a whirlwind of baseless accusations and misinformation that led him from a routine meeting with friends to being accused of his murdering best friend. In the face of terrifying circumstances Zaire's heartbreaking experience paints a damning picture of our current justice system.

Zaire's mother, SummerAnn Hanibal also joins us for this emotional roller-coaster, giving voice to her desperate struggle for Zaire's justice. She underscores the need for accountability especially in the media and the judicial system. In a cautionary tale that also includes an exploration of the flaws in the justice system and the harm that being  wrongful accused can inflict, this episode leaves us considering the pressing need for reform.

This gripping narrative brings to light the mere simplicity with which an innocent act can turn one's life around and throw them into an overwhelming flood of traumatic events. As Zaire and Ms. Hannibal recount their emotional and harrowing experiences, we reflect on the tragic aftermath of a falsely accused incident and the dire need for a more careful and thorough investigation process.

The episode also delves into the darker aspects of society and its institutions, and ends with a powerful call to action towards Mayor Parker. The entire tale stands as an unwavering testament to resilience, faith, survival, and the power of love and determination. Buckle up for an unforgettable journey of struggle, triumph, reforms, and change. 

 

 

https://linktr.ee/jimmybonds

 

https://illadelphiaradio.com/

 

 

 

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Yeah.
Jimmy!
Lights, camera, action. Some people thought I quit and I ain't giving satisfaction.
From a different era, writing rhymes up on napkins. What you had to say was
more important than attracting. Yeah, I'm talking back to you.

(00:26):
What's good, family? And welcome to another episode of Jimmy Bond's Podcast,
right here on WPEB Radio, 88.1 FM, 95.1 FM, West Philadelphia.
What's good, family? Tell me what's good, what's good.
We are back for another show, another week.
And before we continue, no, I can't forget our co-host. So, shout out to my
man, Tati. While it's good, how you feeling?

(00:47):
Live from the 215. And you know, I can't forget our other co-host, the lovely Miss Lady T.
What's up, Lady T? How you doing, mama? Hey, fellas. How you doing?
Thank you for the red carpet and the flowers.
I appreciate it. You know, you always get bouquets of them. Bouquets of them.
Yes. Moving right along. Remember, you can call us with your comments or your
questions at 215-472-0881.

(01:09):
Again, it's 215-472-0881. You can also email us at jimmybondspodcasts at gmail.com.
Again, it's jimmybondspodcasts at gmail.com. It's J-I-M-M-Y-B-O-N-D-S podcast at gmail.com.
Also, family, make sure you follow us on Instagram at jimmybondspodcasts,
on Twitter at podcastbonds, and make sure we continue to open a dialogue on

(01:31):
the Jimmy Bonds Podcast Facebook group. Let's keep this thing going.
Moving right along, family. Tonight, tonight, tonight, we have some special
guests. They will be here soon.
And this is a very important episode. It's a special episode, an exclusive episode.
So I hope all our listeners out there are listening. We thank y'all for listening
each and every week. To all the family out there, we love y'all. We appreciate y'all.

(01:55):
Before we continue, before our guests get here, I want to make sure we
send a special shout out to one of our loyal listeners miss rice happy birthday
rice happy birthday to you hey happy birthday y'all once again birthday to her
happy birthday to you hey happy birthday.

(02:16):
Music.
Birthday that's all i got that's all
i got that's all i got i ain't getting no happy birthday song like that
last week you know

(02:41):
i shouldn't expect this from t i should always expect that from t she gonna
let me know but happy birthday you too mama happy birthday big deal shout out
to all the people that hit the five oh because some of us didn't make it so
we always want to make sure We celebrate our big, big days. You know what I'm saying?
But family, tonight's show is a special show. It's an exclusive show.

(03:03):
Something that we felt that it was important for us to highlight and talk about and get to.
So with that being said, our guests are here. We're going to go to break real
quick and get our guests and bring them in so we can have this conversation.
I don't want to talk about what it's about because I think this is too important.
I want to make sure you guys tune in for it. So we'll be right back.
Remember, you can call us with your comments or your questions at 215-472-0881.

(03:25):
Again, that's 215-472-0881. You can also email us at jimmybondspodcasts at gmail.com.
Again, that's jimmybondspodcasts at gmail.com. It's J-I-N-N-Y-B-O-N-D-S, podcast at gmail.com.
You're listening to the Jimmy Bond's Podcast right here on WPEB Radio,
88.1 FM, 95.1 FM, West Philadelphia.
We'll be right back. And welcome back. WPEB Radio 88.1 FM, 95.1 FM, West Philadelphia.

(03:51):
Remember, family, call us with your comments or your questions at 215-472-0881.
Again, that's 215-472-0881.
You can also email us at jimmybondspodcast at gmail.com. Again,
it's jimmybondspodcast at gmail.com.
It's J-I-M-M-Y-B-O-N-D-S, podcast at gmail.com. And welcome back,
family. Tonight, we have some special guests with us tonight.

(04:15):
My name is Jimmy Bond. welcome back. This is a very exclusive interview.
We are so happy to have you in the studio. So happy for you guys to join us.
But what we wanted to do is have a discussion with Mr.
Zaire Wilson and his mom, Miss Hannibal, in regards to an incident that happened
back in January, January 11th to be exact.
And there was so much misinformation that was put out there about this experience.

(04:39):
There were so many things that were misconstrued, so many things that were said.
Evidence wasn't looked at.
But Tonight Show family, the title of Tonight Show is Guilty Till Proven Innocent.
And I think the best way to start this is to allow both of our guests to speak
about their experience and what they had.
So, Zaire, if you don't mind, my friend, if you don't mind sharing a little

(05:03):
bit about your experience since January, really. Everything you experienced since then.
My experience was depressing, traumatizing, sad, disappointing.
A lot of emotions I was going through since January 11th.
Yeah, a lot of emotions I was going through since January 11th.

(05:25):
So I still go through a lot. Like I got to stay in the house.
I can't hang out with my old friends no more because they betrayed me.
Because with the news put out there that I had criminal record,
never been in jail, day in my life.
They said I handed him a gun, never touched a gun, didn't even touch the gun.

(05:47):
All I did was shake his hand.
Basically, everybody that you said I was guilty by association because I shook his hand.
And nobody believed me until... Nobody believed I was innocent until I got to the youth.
Well, the shooter... When I got booked, me and him was in the same van.
He was telling that one cop, I don't know his name, saying I had nothing to do with it.

(06:11):
Saying I don't know why he here when I was in the youth.
The next day, I woke up. So...
The shooter was in there with me. I immediately started crying.
Started thinking about Shadi.
Started thinking about, like, I'm really here. Like, I never been here.

(06:31):
And he kept saying I was going to do 15 to 20, 10 to 15. For a sudden,
I had nothing to do with it.
And every time I cried, the shooter would tell the staff, I don't know why he
crying. He had nothing to do with it.
He wrote a letter. he wrote a letter to uh my lawyer and the da saying i had
nothing to do with it and i just felt like if the shooter told y'all on scene

(06:57):
i had nothing to do with it why am i still here,
they had first of all when i was booked they had nothing
on me at all they kept saying look at
the judge actually kept saying look at the video they didn't want to look at
the video they had i know they had the video the whole time it's no way it's
no way my case is this big and y'all don't got the video so they basically be

(07:21):
trying to hold me so i can tell it was nothing to tell about,
it was really nothing to tell about and then
mind you i'm in there getting blamed from one of my best friends of murder i'm
in there getting death threats and all this type of bad energy from people I
was cool without her so now when I come home it's like I got no I got no friends.

(07:48):
Had to cut some of my family members off I had
to just be on my own but before before
January 11th I had all these friends all
this support and people I would just hang around that was just cool but but
when they booked me or when they arrested me they didn't even look at the video

(08:09):
They just assumed it was me because they sent a picture around to the police
because I shook boy hand.
I didn't know that. I didn't know the shooter from a can of paint.
I only knew him from school and I never, never talked to him,
ever, never talked to him.

(08:30):
I never I never was in his class.
Every time we seen each other in school, we would just walk by each other and
we didn't talk. Look, only reason I shook his hand, because he called me when
I was before I were before this even happened.
I would dap up random people, talk to random people, even be around random people

(08:54):
just because they was my friends, friends. So it was like.
This could have happened to anybody. This could be anybody in my situation.
And this could have been them getting blamed for something they did not do.
Me personally, everything that happens in the city, I don't believe anything
the news say. I believe on facts.

(09:17):
And the stuff that they were saying, that's not even my character.
I'm not passing no gun to somebody. Why
would I want somebody to shoot down 15th and Market where
all my friends my brother and my
one of my cousins is at why would i do that and we was just all having fun why
would i want them to shoot down 15th and market that's not even my character

(09:41):
then if i if i had something to do with it wouldn't a person run from away from this situation,
no i yes i came back downstairs to see if everybody was okay including my friends
and my brother. One of my friends came and told me.
Shawty got hit. I didn't believe him because he joked around too much.

(10:07):
Then I see the police carry his body upstairs.
I'm crying over his body. Woke off, had a panic attack.
Leak tell me to go calm down, so I walk downstairs.
I'm calming down. Then I'm about to walk back upstairs. The police point at
me from across cost of playing for him, I said me.
And once I see them put me in cuffs.

(10:28):
I'm like, what do y'all got me for? And he showed me the picture.
And he was like, you're involved in the shooting. I said, what?
In my mind, I'm like, this is not me. This is not my character.
And I know dang well I had nothing to do with it. I'm a smart kid. I'm not dumb.
What happened that day, no kid should ever go through that.

(10:53):
I'm happy. FB, RIP my friend Tyshawn. I'm happy nobody else got hit.
Nobody else. Because it was 75 kids down there. 75 of us. And usually a lot of people get hit.
I'm happy nobody has to go through that. I'm sorry Shadi mom has to go through that.

(11:15):
I'm still going through that. My brother's still going through that.
A lot of people still are going through that.
A lot of people's feelings are going to be hurt. shawty was
a brother a friend he motivated
people he was respectful he loved to
dance he loved going outside and he
loved pushing all our friends to the limit like

(11:37):
if you say you can't do something he'll be like don't say that i'm
gonna push you to your limit and i got you but what
they gotta understand is what i went through
was something i never thought in a
million than yours I will go through I never even thought I would
be in jail never thought I'd be arrested never
thought I would be blamed for

(11:59):
something I didn't do I literally got
blamed for my friend murder and it
took him six weeks six and a half weeks to look
at the video and say this kid had nothing to do with it then it took them I
think a week to release that I had nothing to do with it then a leak then uh

(12:20):
when i got home i had to get the support from uh my mentor staff.
His rebuilding nonprofit program, foundation.
I just had a lot of people who wanted to kill me. I still do.
Got a lot of people who want to kill me.

(12:42):
Still kind of get a lot of threats. People still think I did it.
It's just the DA and the news they put out there that I did it.
I did it. so it's not like the kids
or the adults is going to believe it what they
already put out there the damage is done yeah i'm

(13:03):
still getting blamed for it after all the
evidence came out i literally had nothing to
do with it i can't even go out can't even go walk around
outside unless i have somebody with me
my friends only got
three real front three real
friends left three and i

(13:24):
used to have like 10 of them that i grew up with because they all they all said
i did it even one of my friends tried to give him my address he told he told
the boys that was i guess shine do something to me i'll show you where his address
is at i'll show you where his house at at the But mind you,
I've done a lot of stuff for the kids I was around that I did not have to. I gave them money.

(13:51):
I paid for studio sessions out of my pocket. Out of my pocket.
I didn't have to do that. I did not.
They wanted to rap. I wanted to rap. They wanted a new sound to make it out.
They wanted to make party songs.
They wanted to sing. They wanted to rap.
Art. I got it from them. I even I even paid,

(14:15):
for food that day mind you we been we been to a studio like five times I paid
that out of my pocket except for one time when I went with my friend,
I paid that out of my pocket I never I never bought this back on them or said,

(14:36):
y'all broke or y'all can't pay for this no I'm not that type of bull they was
my friends and i wanted to pay for a studio session so that that's what i was
going to do and that's like after all i've done after all the people i helped
they think this is my character,
i still can't get my life back my friends that i love so much is gone.

(15:03):
People still think I did it. I don't know what I got to prove to them.
I had nothing to do with it. I don't know if I got to talk to them.
And then it's like I just feel bad for his mom because she has to go through losing her son.
And I know Shadi was really close with his mom. So it's like I can't imagine feeling that pain.

(15:26):
But it's a lot of people out here saying I shouldn't be out or he did it or he did that.
They just want to see an innocent man in jail for no reason.
I'm happy I got on six and a half weeks.
This could have took three to five years to get the charges dropped.
I was getting charged with conspiracy, murder one and two, assault,

(15:51):
endangerment, and some other charges.
For a sudden, I had nothing to do with it. I was in a unit called HF.
They called us killers we was the killers in there manjo i didn't look at none
of them kids in there as killers or none of that they was telling me these stories i was telling them mine.

(16:15):
None of them kids in there shouldn't be in there at
all there's a lot of them is in the same situation i'm
in who've been there for a year fighting conspiracy just
because he's seen a bull and won't tell what the
d.a gotta realize is that this black community
they have this no snitching rule so

(16:35):
if they snitch and something happened to them who fought is it who's who fought
who fought is that gonna be on them because they got them to testify they got
them to write a statement and now their life is in danger now forever they're
going to be betrayed as a snitch which, me personally,
I wasn't in the streets.

(16:55):
I told my mom, my mentor, my pastor, and my therapist, I wasn't ratting,
and I'm not in the streets.
A lot of people, one of my friends, he was like, bro, rat, get out of there. I'm like, no.
I'm like, I'm not doing that. So I can have a bigger target on my back.
I'm not ratting. I literally told that to them many a times.

(17:19):
I'm not ratting. then the shooter wrote a letter he was in there talking about that case,
I don't know what was in his mind that day I don't know why he did what he did
I don't know who was the target I don't know if he was just shooting just to shoot I don't know.

(17:40):
I can't witness a son I didn't, all I, I just can't.
They want me to, first of all, they wanted me, they basically,
I was in there for a try-in.
They basically wanted me to rat it on them. What am I ratting about?
I had nothing to do with it. I don't even know why I'm here.
I'm technically a witness. I'm a witness.

(18:05):
Nobody, everybody that's saying they want to hurt me, a lot of people wasn't there.
They didn't see shawty on the ground like i did they didn't see blood like i
did they didn't see their friend on the ground and the eyes is not the eye he's
not moving nobody's seen that except for,
six people and when i tried

(18:27):
to go over there they pointed guns in my face and when i was in a police station
district i think it was district what district nine district nine i'm in there
without food water or they ain't let me go to the bathroom they won't even let me call my mom,

(18:47):
they said i couldn't call my mom my mom was giving me an attorney i kept asking
can i call my mom they said you can't do that i'm like huh you can't call your
mom here i'm like i'm a minor though They was like, you can't call your mom.
So then I got on this little phone call for an interview thing to go to a mini

(19:09):
trial where they give you your charges.
They said after the mini trial, I can have a phone call. Still wasn't given a phone call.
Then I stayed the night there. I slept on a hard rock little thing like this
with my neck and back hurting. Then they took me to the youth.
Then that's when I got a phone call. That's where I got resources to help me with my case.

(19:35):
Everybody in there, they had my back. They was calling my mom every day and
telling her how I was in there.
First week, I was crying because my man, one of my best friends, just got shot.
And I'm in here getting blamed for it, and I'm getting death threats.
That's all I'm thinking about.
Then when I called my friends, oh, yeah, they want to do something to you.

(20:00):
Why are you even saying that to me on the phone? Even if I ask,
why are you putting that in my mind? That's going to make it worse.
So then, the bull went upstate.
So that's when my case really started getting serious. That's when my mom came
up and told me, Shadi died.
I didn't cry in front of her. I just wanted to go back to the cell.

(20:23):
And when I went back to the cell, I was angry. I was crying.
I even had, a couple of times in there, I had suicidal thoughts on my mind.
I wanted to stay in my room, but my mentor, Stive, told me, you can't stay in
your room because it's going to get bad. He said, you got to treat your trauma.

(20:45):
So every time I go to sleep, I think about Shadi.
I think about why. I think about, like, dang, it just happened like that.
Like, we was just together.
We was just at level up. He was just dancing, doing the thing that he loved.
And now I'm gonna blame for his murder and
anything I do or try to do nobody wants to hear the truth they want to hear

(21:10):
all lies I'm not saying I'm not gonna say what they want to hear oh yeah I did
this I did that because it's not true I heard rumors I backdoored them I handed a gun.
Pointed at him. We came down there together. He was my friend.

(21:30):
None of that is true. I don't know Bull.
Never handed him the gun. Never pointed. Never was with him.
At first, I was with Shadi.
I told him before he died or got shot, we got off the train. I said, I love you.
I said, I love you, Salam. He said, I love you, too. He said,

(21:50):
I'm going to text a group chat when I get home.
Then we was walking, me and my brother and my other friend. We was walking.
But my brother said, oh, the train come in six minutes. So we waiting.
So I'm playing with a girl.
I'm chasing her. I yoke her up playfully.
I hear somebody calling my name.
Then I'm ignoring it. I look Look back, heard somebody call my name again.

(22:16):
Then I'm like, oh, he walks up to me. We dap up hands.
I'm saying, what he doing down here? Because, mind you, I go to a school out of Philadelphia.
So it's weird seeing somebody out of Philadelphia, my school, be where I be at.

(22:37):
So it's like, so dang, I'm like, what you doing down here?
Why you down her just ask them
type of questions he not really talking to
me like he's saying answers but
he not really talking to me he just keep he just
I don't know he seemed a little off but me

(22:59):
I'm always on my A's and Q's I should have peeped
it so so when I'm about so when
we leaving each other and then he asked me
who I was with I said my brother so we leaving
each other though i guess i'm walking we walking up towards the
kids instantly out of nowhere i hear gunshots i immediately run and some officers

(23:22):
ask me why you run what you mean while i run if anybody heard gunshots their
first thought is to run what you want me to stand there i'm not superman,
i'm not bulletproof so i ran came back downstairs got guns pointed at my face
they let me go So then my other friend told me, shawty, got hit, went upstairs,

(23:46):
seen blood, seen him on the ground, seen he wasn't moving. We was all crying.
There's a lot of people out there who didn't know shoddy it's like a lot of fake love out there,
manju his mom his mom thinks
i'm not saying a disrespectful way his mom

(24:07):
thinks everybody was his friend no no no no no no
no the people that shoddy hung around every
day was me and our little group which we had was
a group called nbm what should we make it
was called motivated by money we had our own little
group we hosted parties we did
dance battles we went to studio sessions we went
out to eat together we we went skating and

(24:29):
we all got like haircuts together we all
talked to girls together we all stayed at each
other's cribs except for shoddy house i brought
them over my house they came they
got me they came to got me they came to got me
so we could go to level up parties because me i don't like
coming outside if you really know me i don't come outside i'm.

(24:50):
Unless unless i'm forced to or peer pressure so when
i'm being peer pressure i don't like
like peer like peer pressure to come outside i
don't like when they do that so it's like people like are you
turkey like you're not chunko talk to these
girls i'm like all right bro i'm just coming bro because i
don't got time for the mouth in the group chat all day the z3 zire

(25:11):
wasn't outside zire wasn't outside i don't
want to come outside only time i came outside side
was when i was hosting a party i was
getting my hair cut or going to the stew or going
to see a girl so then shoddy he
meant he meant a lot to a lot of people especially in our little group and it's

(25:33):
like i come home every now everybody knows shoddy everybody knows shoddy now
everybody was his best friend where was this energy at when he was alive yeah
it was a lot of people People talking down on him, talking down on me,
talking down on our group, disrespecting us.
We had to cut a few people off.

(25:55):
And this one friend that we had, he did a lot to us.
Like, he stole. Like, say if he was talking to a different girl at once,
he'll go tell that girl. Like, why are you doing that?
And then he'll go have sexual intercourse with the girl.

(26:16):
He do he's doing it for for females he'll
show off like i had a like i got an uncle on my on my mom's on my mom's side
i was with him every day we we be with girls automatically he starts showing
off oh he ugly oh then you had them shoes on yesterday like bro why are you doing that,

(26:39):
let me let me ask you this sorry let me ask you this man first of all i'm gonna
make a statement to you brother i'm gonna say welcome home thank you and i and
i i know you might hear that a lot.
Really welcome home, bro. You've been through a lot and a lot is an understatement.
You've been through more than what some people go through in a lifetime and you're only 16.

(27:03):
So welcome home, bro. You have, you've walked through a fire that some men who
are grown men couldn't do themselves. selves.
So, you know, you're a testament of resilience.
You're a testament of belief and faith.
And I think that, you know, with all that you've experienced,

(27:27):
particularly with the friends you've lost, the people you've lost,
the loved one you lost, you know,
we as a community have to make sure we continue to build you back up.
And I think more than anything else, you know as your mom sits here with us
you know i'm a parent as well i got a five-year-old son,
he's not your age but i think about him in the same context we want to protect

(27:50):
our kids am i right mom absolutely at all at all points we want to protect our kids and no matter what,
and in this situation your protection was taken away they they just took it
away from you they didn't allow you to protect your son the way that you would
protect your son so i i say it again Ben, welcome home, brother.

(28:11):
I'm going to ask you this. You know, how have you been coping with your experience?
How have you been managing your every day-to-day? Huh?
I love it. It's great. I said, how have you been managing, how have you been
coping with your day-to-day? Not bad. I mean, bad.

(28:34):
Like, all I could think about was that day. then it's like all these people
hate me now for no reason and people like when I first got home,
people was like oh yeah you gonna get touched you gonna get this done to you
you gonna get that done to you for something I didn't even do for something
I had no parts of and it's like the damage is already done it's none of the

(28:59):
DA or the noose can do anything about that,
And I'm sorry, T, go ahead. First, I would like to say I am so sorry that you
had to go through all of that and all of that happened to you.
And not only did it happen to you, but it happened to your family as well.
So I know as bad as it was for you, it had to be worse for your mom because

(29:24):
it wasn't anything that she could really do.
You know what I mean? At some point, Mom, I'm to think that you kind of felt
that even as a mother, your power was taken away.
You really couldn't even protect your son, no matter how much he pleaded that
he was innocent and he had nothing to do with it.
It's the worst feeling in the world to be a parent and to feel powerless as

(29:47):
a parent when you can't protect your kid. Because as a parent,
all you want to do is protect your kid.
So I really do apologize that you had to go through all of that and all of that happened.
Not even that but it just makes you ask questions you know the cops are supposed
to be the people that are supposed to de-escalate the problem they're supposed
to ask questions and they never.

(30:10):
Listening to him speaking it's almost like they never asked him they didn't
care to ask they didn't care to ask all they wanted was just to blame somebody,
yeah let's wrap this up let's wrap this up as quickly as we can not even that
but he lost one of his friends he lost his best friend his brother
he lost his brother that day so he's
he's my mom asked you this as you're

(30:32):
sitting here you know from from a parental
standpoint what was the experience like for you on the other side he's in there
for six and a half weeks and you're on the outside doing all you can to get
him out what was that like for you oh that was traumatic when i got that phone
call it was just crazy crazy.

(30:53):
His twin brother called me and like, mom, you got to come down city hall. I'm like, what's wrong?
My friend has got shot. Like he's on the ground. He's crying.
I'm like, where your brother at? He like, I just seen him, but I don't know.
I don't know where my brother.
And then maybe like two seconds later, I hear somebody like,

(31:17):
they got your brother. I'm like, Like, what you mean they got your brother?
They be like, mom, they got him in a paddy wagon.
I'm like, for what? He like, mom, hurry up down here. Hurry up.
So I called my brother. We hurry up down City Hall.
I hop out the car and I'm talking to one of the policemen.

(31:38):
And I'm like, I heard you have my son. Where is my son?
Then I hear somebody say, mom, I'm like, that's my child right there.
I have my child in a paddy wagon.
And I'm like, is the guy in the other person? Because they said he was involved in a shooting.
So I'm like, well, they said they got two people. Is him and the other guy in

(32:02):
there? No, they're not. They're separated.
I'm like, so you telling me my child is involved in a shooting?
I said, not my son. He said, everybody's saying not my child.
I said, baby, not my child. I know my child.
Definitely not involved in. He don't even like coming outside.
Only reason why he came, because his brother asked him to go to level up.

(32:27):
And it's crazy, right before that, I called.
Because mind you, he broke his phone December 27th.
So I said, I'm not buying you no phone. I'm not getting it fixed.
You're going to get it fixed when I wanted to get it fixed. So right now you're
going to be without a phone.
Make it work. You know, your brother, your twin brother ain't letting you use the phone. He's stingy.

(32:52):
So I call three times, 9-23.
I'm calling. They're not picking up. I text.
I said, where the F are you at? I haven't seen you since 7-14.
This is almost past. 14 hours since I seen you.

(33:18):
When you get home, it's me and you on site.
This is 925 929
he calls me crying saying my my friend just got shot I'm like look at that coincidence
if y'all asses would have answered the phone y'all would have been on y'all way home,

(33:46):
So once I get down to the police station, they telling me, no,
once I get to city hall, they telling me they have my son.
They send the captain over to come talk to me. He's telling me I got to go to the 19th Street.
I said, okay, I'll meet them down there. Maybe down at the 9th precinct for

(34:09):
maybe an hour and a half before they even bring them down.
Mind you, I'm going back and forth. I'm like, where my son at?
Like y'all said, y'all was, she like, I don't have no juveniles in the back.
Like I checked already. There's no juveniles. I don't know what's going on.
At this point, a detective called me and told me they had my son.

(34:32):
They're going to take him to the ninth I'm like I'm already down here already I'm waiting for y'all,
I see my son get out the uh paddy wagon as they bringing him in through the back doorway,
I yell to him and I tell don't say nothing I'm getting you a lawyer remember
you watch power you know Tyreek so after that point I'm going back and forth

(34:58):
so the detectives come outside side.
He like, can you come in here? I would like to talk to you.
So he, he telling me, yeah, we have your son. He was involved in a shooting.
This young man, Tasha might die.
I'm like my son involved in a shooting. I said, what shooting?

(35:21):
Like you got the wrong kid. Not my child. I'm like, Like, did you see the video?
No, I didn't see the video. So if you ain't see the video, how you going to
tell me about my child if you ain't see the video?
Go see the video first, and then you come back and talk to me.
And I say, you can't talk to my son without me, a legal guardian, and a lawyer present.

(35:48):
So he asked me to sign his paperwork. So he like, you going to sign it?
I said, I got to read it first before I sign.
So I read it make sure everything is said you know that he they can't talk to
him without a parent or anybody so I sign it or whatever and.
Go back outside keep going back and forth so a cop come up to me like ma'am

(36:13):
you might as well go home mind you it's almost four o'clock in the morning i'm
like i'm not going home without my child,
i'm staying right here so he's like okay he comes back a half an hour later he's like ma'am go home,
it's gonna be a long time i said that's fine he was like no no no you're not

(36:35):
understanding with what I'm saying. It's going to be a long time.
He was like, just go home and call down here and see what's going on.
I'm like, you can't tell me what's going on.
He like, I don't, he like, I don't even know.
At that time I get out the car.
I still see SEPTA police.
So I go up and ask them like, what's going on? Oh, I don't know.

(36:58):
I just brung them here. I don't have, so all y'all dumbfounded.
Nobody know what's going on. Yeah, everybody playing stupid, yeah.
So I go home. I'm calling the detective.
They're like, oh, the detective left. He not back till Sunday.
Sunday? It's Friday.

(37:18):
Y'all going to tell me something about my child. Yeah. I'm not waiting on it. It's Sunday. Yeah.
One of the detectives, he like, oh, okay. Oh, your son got a criminal history. I said, no, no.
My son don't got no criminal history.
He looked and he like, oh, I'm so sorry. He doesn't.
This is his first time. I said, so what are y'all charging him with?

(37:40):
Oh, he's charged with conspiracy.
He's going to be charged with conspiracy, reckless endangerment.
But he got to go through a hearing, I think, the next day or whatever.
So I reached out to a lawyer. I.
That bell, the bell was 150K SOB.

(38:04):
So SOB means he can walk out. He can sign himself out. Maybe a half an hour later goes past.
He's like, wait, don't come down here yet.
The DA doesn't like with the bell person or the judge.
So they're talking to an emergency judge at this point. The emergency judge now sets the bill.

(38:29):
It's still at $150,000, but now it's 15%.
So, a 10%. So, it goes to $15,000 that I have to pay.
So, he's like, you got $15,000. I'm like, yeah, I can get it.
Let me call. I'm going to call my brother.
My brother, he lives down south or whatever. So, my brother's like,

(38:52):
okay, we're going to get him out.
My cousin, he like, wait, do not bail him out yet. Wait till the preliminary.
And then the child might pass away.
If the child pass away, they're going to up the charges.
Well, thank God I didn't. Because what the lawyer said was, if I would have

(39:18):
bailed him out, and once they up the charges,
they would have served him with a warrant for his arrest.
And he said, they was coming to your house between three to five o'clock in the morning.
And y'all turning up, you think you turning over to the other side?
You turning over to, to guns at your forehead.

(39:40):
And not only that, they would have put him up CFCF.
And it would have took weeks before he can go to the juvenile system.
That's even if the judge would have let him transfer to the juvenile system.
You know, one of the things that I was just doing the research on it.

(40:03):
I'm sitting here, you know, I don't have I'm not a super journalist,
but I know enough about journalism to know that you should not report a minor
has any criminal record whatsoever.
Now, in his case, he didn't have one even, but I'm watching CBS and it says
both both people had criminal records.
And I'm sitting there saying to myself, like, no, he didn't.

(40:25):
Why did they even say that?
They planted this seed for whatever reason.
And now everybody's like, oh, yeah, well, he had a criminal record.
I'm like, no, but he's a minor at that.
So even if he had one, they shouldn't have said it. Because they upped his charges to a death.
Right. They charged him from a minor to an adult. No, it was always an adult. Are you serious?

(40:48):
Yeah, they was always going to charge him as an adult. But the crazy thing I
always thought was they charged him without evidence.
They charged him without seeing a video. They charged him without seeing anything.
I don't even know if they had witnesses to it to say that your son did this.
The police report that they wrote, I had it the whole time.

(41:09):
It says nothing about my son. The only thing it says about my son,
they went to arrest him on the platform. And that's it.
That's all it says about my child. It don't even say too much about the co-defendant.
It don't say really nothing too much about him.

(41:30):
And then it says both kids run off together.
No, they didn't. I've seen the video. They didn't run off together.
My son ran way before the other co-defendant ran and they went opposite ways.
There was so much about this story that was just so. Because I have so many questions.

(41:53):
I mean, the questions you keep asking, particularly with the DA,
you're sitting around, you're saying to yourself, like you have a 16-year-old
who you're accusing of murder, conspiracy, and whatever other charges they had with him.
And you don't do your due diligence to make sure that this is the right person you have?
My assumption is because of the color of his skin, that this was the reason

(42:14):
why they just went ahead and was like, no, no, go ahead, lock him up. And it's crazy.
They put his face all over the news, all over social media.
It was embarrassing. It was disrespectful. It was humiliating.
Like, I couldn't breathe.
Like, I'm getting phone calls, text messages.

(42:35):
Like, is this your son? And I'm like, because in the beginning, nobody knew about it.
But just me, my brother that lived there, my other brother, my dad, and my mom.
That was it. It was under a wraps the whole time.
I would never told anybody what happened if it never came out on the news.

(42:59):
Hmm. Yeah. If they never showed his face.
It took them a month after he got out to do it, to retract his story.
Now you talk about that. There are litanies of retractions, but because I like
to do research, I know this.
Right. But everybody who just took this story that they made sensationally,

(43:24):
they didn't read them retractions.
They didn't watch Channel 6 or ABC and see that they're retracting a story.
You know, sometimes when you plant the seed, it's going to grow.
You can't unplant that seed. Right.
You can't you can't go back and be like, oh, we made a mistake.
You can't make a mistake when you're in that position.
You got to have a young man's life, a family's life in your hands pretty much.

(43:46):
And it's your responsibility to make sure that you have all the facts correct.
And if you don't have them correct, you get them correct. That is journalism
one on one. So I'm looking at all these videos and news stories and all the
stuff. So I'm like, they're just reporting what was on this police report.
They're not reporting what happened. The police report was wrong.
But that's what they're using to tell their story. Not the facts.

(44:11):
Not what really happened. They're using this information that they say the police gave.
So, I mean, how many times we seen a Philly black men, young men be locked up
or wrongfully accused for something? How many times that happened?
Continuously, continuously. And Zaire is an example of what happens to black men.

(44:33):
But he's also an example of what happens when you don't get the facts straight,
when you don't care about these people's lives, when you don't care about the repercussions of this.
Now, these people in the news, they talking about, you know,
he committed a crime, blah, blah, blah.
They don't know what's going on in his life, what he's being affected by,
who's threatening him, who's threatening his family.

(44:54):
Me who's talking about coming to his house nobody's they don't care about that
they put his whole life in danger they put half of my address out on the news.
And then they can't. What are you going to take that back? You're going to take
that back. Now that information is out there. It's just out there. So my son got threats.
I mean, times that he was calling me crying. He wanted to commit suicide.

(45:21):
And I'm trying to be strong as a mom. Like, you got to pray.
Like, I just need you to pray. Like, do not do anything to yourself.
I'm going to get you out of here. I'm going to do my best to get you out of here.
At this point I got a lawyer I got
a private lawyer I'm calling a
lawyer every day like what's going

(45:43):
on why haven't they seen the video is
it because SEPTA and the DA has something going on where SEPTA want to hire
their own people to do their investigations I'm like is this a political thing
I'm like okay we're at the court and he talking to the DA's the juvenile DA

(46:05):
and the adult homicide DA.
And they both talk about they haven't seen the video.
One judge, she like, how y'all come in my courtroom?
This is a high profile case. It all over the news, CNN, everywhere.
And you haven't seen this video.

(46:28):
Something is wrong.
She like, I'll give y'all six weeks. My lawyer like, no, we can do it in two weeks.
She like, no, no, no. I'm going to give you six weeks.
March 13th was the day we were supposed to go back to the IOJ judge to decide
if he's going to stay at the youth study center or he was going up state road.

(46:52):
If it wasn't for Quadir being a stand-up young man and telling the truth that
my son had nothing to do with it.
He wrote a statement. They called me that morning.
What was that? Martin Luther King.
So it was that Tuesday morning. She called me around like 8 o'clock and was like, oh, Ms.

(47:15):
Wilson, I have something. I said, wait, something wrong with my son? Did something happen?
No, no, no, no. know I have something to tell you I'm like what do
you have to tell me she like oh the
co-defendant he wrote a letter he
going around telling everybody my son had nothing to do with it why young bull

(47:36):
crying he gonna get out soon he had nothing to do with it I wish he stopped
crying acting like a punk that's true like he I'm telling him I'm like what kind of unit you on,
a site and saying, what's that?
That sounds a little crazy to me, site and saying.
He's like, we can't go nowhere. We just confined to a floor.

(48:01):
Everything comes to us, food, school, lunch, medical.
If they have extra activities, they come to them.
They're not allowed to leave. And if they leave, they got to shut everything
down where they can walk the floor and probably go outside or to the gym and stuff like that.

(48:24):
I think everybody on the unit was like high profile murder cases.
I'm like, baby, stay in your room. You're not about this life.
I'm like, don't come out. And they wonder why, like, why he not coming out the room?
Because he with a bunch of killers. No, my child not into that.
Stay in your room read i

(48:47):
said pick up the bible read a bunch
of books right i said we gonna
send you letters write us back yeah like
it was just crazy just talking to my child and i'm like i can't do this yeah
like i remember one night i'm
in a bathroom and i'm crying for hours and hours words. I'm on the floor.

(49:14):
Like my parents never heard me cry a day of my life.
I'm not, I'm not a cry baby. Like I'm very strong.
And I always said, if something happened to my kids, that will be my breaking moment. Mm-hmm.
Mom called my dad and was like, I don't know what to say to her.

(49:36):
You got to talk to she in there crying.
And I'm like, I don't want to talk to nobody. Leave me alone.
Like, I don't want to answer no phone, no text messages, no nothing.
Like, just leave me alone at this point.
Like, I'm stressed. I've never been more stressed in my life as I've been since January 11th.

(49:59):
I got to protect myself, my son, his twin brother, to make sure,
you know, nothing happens to them.
He's locked up. His other twin. We stressed. We not eating.
I'm losing mad weight. Like, I'm going to say 15 pounds in them six weeks. Wow.

(50:26):
Like, I was trying every day, all the time, trying to hold myself up.
And I'm like, I needed to talk to somebody, but I'm like, I don't want to talk to nobody.
Yeah. I don't feel like nobody asking me, you know, dumb questions and stuff.

(50:47):
But if I was going through something, I would call his aunt.
She would she like really helped me
get through a lot of stuff yeah she
helped me interview different lawyers and stuff
like that i think we interviewed about seven different lawyers
you know my dad
he i would call him we would stay on the phone you

(51:09):
know late night and everything
we'll get into arguments and he like you
know what i'ma just let you do you like at this
point you know what listen right i'm like
this is my son like i just can't let
my son go down this road
yeah this not help yeah you did all you could to protect him from that road

(51:33):
and i'm like for him not to be there is there so many different organizations
and i'm like why hell why you had to speak to him yeah what's your point of
speaking you could have just walked Walked right on through and kept it moving.
You ain't had to say one word to him. Yeah.
And like I tell him, wrong place at the wrong time. Mm-hmm.

(51:57):
All these friends turned their back on him.
Oh, he backdoored him. Oh, he had something to do with it. The news said this.
The police wouldn't have kept you if you ain't had something to do with it.
None of y'all was there. Make it make sense.

(52:19):
Y'all wasn't there. The news just put out my son and his co-defendant and a
young man. Oh, Zaire came with his cold defense. No, he didn't.
He didn't come with that man. It was other people in their group that was all
together that was never even put out to the media.

(52:41):
And they never even questioned the other people that was a part of their group. So they never even.
How do you not question witnesses? They didn't. Because I asked.
I asked the other two people that was with them. Yeah.
No, they never said nothing to us. They never pulled us to the side or anything.

(53:05):
Sis, I hope you got names and badge numbers. Okay. Oh, I have it all.
And then that detective from SEPTA, what's his name? Charles or something like that.
He was the main one. Oh, they got criminal record.

(53:27):
This is their third time. Baby, that's not my son third time.
This is first time. And his last time going to see behind some walls.
He not used to this call. Spread your butt cheeks.
Hold your nuts. Call four times. He not used to that.
That make your bed up at five o'clock unmake

(53:50):
the bed put the bed back together take the
stuff off the wall he's not you oh going your your room lights out eight o'clock
15 minute calls you know nothing about that yeah it's traumatizing to him waking
him up at the middle of the night As he's screaming and yelling in his sleep,

(54:13):
it's traumatizing. It's crazy.
It took so long. My son's been out since February 29th.
He will start therapy on Friday.
That's a month and a half. From calling different places and everything.
It took a lot just to try to get him some therapy. Yeah.

(54:38):
He has one on monday i'm not one on friday one on monday a panic i think it's
called panic room or something like that another place lasalle or something like that they have,
like but it took too long to get
to get the help you need to get the help that he needed so what

(54:59):
i gotta go to the emergency room and say my son tried to commit suicide for
y'all to give him help so you're not going to give him help you're with him
impatient you're going to put him in another facility where he already just
came the trauma on top of trauma right do that yeah.
Sydney's, y'all think every child is bad, especially these adults.

(55:24):
Y'all swear everybody is bad. Y'all believe everything the news had to say,
and y'all don't never get the facts.
And then when the facts come out, you ain't got nothing to say.
Where are the people that was saying, oh, give them life. They should get the death penalty.
Oh, my God, I can't stand these. throw

(55:47):
the book at them oh but soon as
they came back he had nothing to do with
it nobody to say nothing yeah it's
so many times i'm reading these comments and i wanted to respond i see my family
members in the comments arguing with people and stuff like that like y'all don't
even know what y'all talking about but y'all just going off with the news say

(56:11):
yeah i can't believe what the news said.
The news said my son had priors. The news said my son handed somebody a gun.
My son ain't never touched a gun.
And that was the question that I had. If there was a gun involved and he touched
the gun, would his fingerprints be on the gun?
They took the fingerprints in the, in the, I mean the detective said they know

(56:34):
he didn't have, they know he didn't touch the gun.
They had the gun, they had everything. thing.
I mean, even without the video, there were signs that he didn't do this. Right.
Because, you know, I'm not a shooter, but if you shoot somebody,
I'm not thinking you're going to stick around.
And that's the only thing where the co-defendant messed up at.

(56:54):
He stuck around. He came back after he left.
Crazy. I read a quote that you gave to a news agency and you said, my son went in one way.
He went in one person came out another person yes
he did he is not the same young man

(57:16):
that he went in with now he's like on edge you can't do this you'd be like zion
you can't talk you can't talk to me you can't do this can't do that oh my god
i can't can y'all just stop yeah yeah i need I need peace. I need this and that. Yeah.
Like he's ill go all the time. Yeah. He hasn't, he's bored.

(57:42):
And I'll say this to both of you. However you feel, run with it.
Don't hold back or shut yourself down because of what you think the person to
the left or the right is going to say or do.
If you're having a bad day, let it be known that you're having a bad day and

(58:04):
you are entitled to have your bad day because you went through something.
There is no time limit or limitation as to how long it's going to take you to
get through whatever it is that you're going through.
It's going to be a while. It's going to take a minute. You might not ever get
over it. And I don't expect you to.

(58:24):
And all I'm saying to you is however you feeling, run with it.
You're entitled to your feelings because it should have never happened and
the same thing goes for you mom because as long as he went through it you went
through it too right you know so yeah run
with your feelings but please don't let anybody tell you
how you should feel or what you should be doing or how things
should go or you know what i mean because people

(58:46):
will sit there and tell you well that happened last year yeah you're
still talking about it oh well he out now why y'all
still harping on it no you bring up something this this
is this is the thing you bring up up something you know in
the media world social media regular media everything happens
so fast everything happens so quickly people's life
change in a snap of a finger right so what happened

(59:06):
to Zaire in January we're in
April right now people not thinking about this no
more when they should be because it
can happen to anybody if you have a 15 16 14
13 year old 12 year old out there it
could happen to your son right your daughter even
it can happen so the fact of

(59:27):
the matter is i think i think we as a community have to remember that like we
we have trauma we don't the trauma doesn't just go away after the story goes
away not at all you got to fight your trauma you do you do you have to go through
it and you know he said something earlier about something he likes to.
Do now to kind of hit home time he was talking about you know he likes to do

(59:49):
music and he likes to he likes to rap and you know for for me my therapy has always been music.
And music has always been something that saved me from those things,
those traumas I experienced.
You know, how's the music coming now? Are you like, I don't even want to do it no more?

(01:00:10):
I don't feel like that's something I want to even try. I'm through with it.
How do you feel about that?
Oh, no. I want to do music. I'm going to do it for Shadi. Amen.
There you go. Amen. Because that's what he would have wanted you to do.
He would have wanted you to keep that going, keep that legacy going.
Or keep what you had built with your team and your friends.

(01:00:30):
I can't fathom what he went through, okay? I never been in jail.
I might have had a run-in with the cops, nothing crazy, but I never went to jail.
I never had that experience, and let alone at 16.
You know, his life, when I say his life, it's not going to be the same.
You look up Zaire Wilson, you still see articles,

(01:00:55):
about him being guilty then you
see articles about all charges
was dropped i remember just a couple
of like two weeks ago i'm calling we're having like this intake for him to get
therapy and i'm telling this i'm telling the lady and she's like okay when this

(01:01:18):
happened i'm like i don't remember the date, but I remember the date.
So she was like, can you hold on for a minute? I say, yeah.
She comes back maybe five minutes later. I said, let me ask you something.
Did you just go and research my child? She said, what'd you say?
Did you research my child?

(01:01:41):
No, I didn't. My coworker did. So what was your point? So you telling me you
didn't believe what I was saying?
No she didn't and i said you
know what you have a good rest of the day and this
is something that my son is going to deal with because
now he has to get his record expunged both

(01:02:02):
of them one for the first one and then when they up the charges to first degree
murder he has to get it expunged so when he goes to apply for a job yep they
want to ask him oh it says you was locked up charges was withdrew,
but now you got to explain what happened.

(01:02:23):
You might get someone that's sympathetic that feel for you, but then you might
get somebody that be like, oh no, I'm not hiring this thug.
He got locked up. No, he ain't working for my company.
And that's a shame because that's something he never, never ...

(01:02:45):
Or wanted to go through is being in jail.
I feel like no kid should ever experience this.
And not only that, it's so easy to get in trouble.
It is hard, hard to get out of it.

(01:03:05):
And these kids now, 15, 16, that's playing with these guns, shooting stuff up.
Let me tell you something. is not worth it
your parents ain't got 50 to
100k to cough up to
a lawyer for a murder case that's not that's

(01:03:26):
something i was gonna ask you if i if i said to you what's the
cost of freedom what would you say we interviewed
seven 50 to 100k if
it had to go to trial 50 to
100k I don't have 50k to
cough out now maybe I gotta do what

(01:03:47):
I gotta do to get it but I'm gonna
get my son out but best to believe my family was right there ready to cough
up some money with no problem like it's a bit like they don't understand when
you get in trouble and you got

(01:04:07):
these co-defendants only one
of y'all can get up not the
what's that going public public defender only one of
y'all can get a public defender the rest
of y'all gonna get court appointed or your parents gotta
pay for a lawyer only one is getting a public defender everybody else better

(01:04:29):
hope your parent and better hope the court appointed lawyer is pretty good because
they They just got out of school. You done.
They're looking to settle, and they're not looking to fight.
Right. They're looking to settle. They're looking to settle. Yeah.
Zaire, let me ask you this, man. You know, before January 11th,

(01:04:50):
what was your perception of the justice system?
Wrong. What was wrong?
Because I know, like, before January 11th, I'd be outside.
The cops would just harass my other friends.
Like, we would go downtown just to go to level up. But I guess stuff be happening
downtown, they'll just grab random kids and take them to the youth study center.

(01:05:17):
Wow. So they're kidnapping kids
now? I know two people who I was with last year when Shadi was with me.
I guess something happened downtown.
They grabbed two of my friends and took them to the youth study center.
And they got out three weeks later for something they didn't do.
So this is what you're pretty much saying that this is something that happens

(01:05:37):
on a regular basis. Mm-hmm. Cops be harassing us.
Cops don't care. They see a group of kids, everybody in that group is in trouble.
And half of the time, they don't even be like that. It might be one bad apple out your group.
I'm messing up for everybody else. But everybody else got to fall victim to what's going on.

(01:05:59):
But you know what? Don't mishandle. I'm going to say this. I find that media
and a lot of other people, they focus so much on the.
On the kids that are in trouble instead of focusing on the ones that are not in trouble.
They pay more attention to the kids that are doing harm than the ones that are doing good.
The ones that are trying to make a difference in their community.

(01:06:21):
They rather put his face on the TV instead of saying this young man is an artist.
He's a creator. You know what I mean? The things that he's done in his life.
That doesn't matter to them. What matters to them is that he quote unquote committed a crime.
But at the end of the day, like Like I said before, the seed was planted and
you can't take that seed back.

(01:06:41):
How are you going to take that back? Right. Yeah.
So, mom, I'm going to ask you, before January 11th, what was your perception of the media?
And after January 11th, what's your perception of the media?
See, I never really watched the news, but I'll watch No Guns On and stuff.
Like, that's how I would know about everything that was going on.

(01:07:04):
And I'll just be like, it's crazy how they do black people.
You just never think it would happen to you or your family. You'll be like,
y'all don't treat white people like this. They sure don't.
Not at all. They sure don't. If the same thing happened and he was happened
to be a white 16-year-old, oh, they would have done all they could to make sure
he didn't commit that crime.

(01:07:25):
I've seen the video when they came to him with guns pointed and everything, threw him on the ground.
I'm like, really? Yeah. I seen y'all walk up to 16-year-olds.
Okay, we're going to put the cuffs behind you. You'll be fine.
We're going to walk you upstairs.
No, because they Black and we're in an inner-city community,

(01:07:48):
they think everything, everybody is bad. And that's part of police training, too.
It's what, shoot first, ask questions later. Like, that's crazy.
And that's why I was saying pretty much the status is what it's supposed to
be is innocent until proven guilty.
However, what it is in our society until proven innocent.

(01:08:11):
But even in Zaire's case, it's guilty until proven dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.
Because he has still been dealing with the same ramifications of what happened.
People still saying he did it. people still saying it
whatever it would even with the retractions i i saw the research
you look at it there's a list of retractions but then

(01:08:31):
there's stories right next to it so if somebody's reading
this his name pops up what are they going to believe right but
how big were the retractions they're not big at all they're
like a minute and a half or as far as video the the
the news articles are like 500 words that that's
it they're not saying well they never had the video you know
he what he did not commit the crime all they said is that the

(01:08:53):
da dropped the charges that's it and and
a lot of times you could think about it particularly in philly the da can drop
the charges for anything they might not have enough evidence they dropping charges
so it's it has to be he was innocent not charges dropped that's a difference
it's a big difference because people get off all the time charges drop well

(01:09:13):
i might have committed the crown but they ain't got Got no evidence. Right.
That doesn't mean I'm not guilty. It just means you ain't got no evidence.
In Zaire's case, he didn't do it.
So he should be innocent, not charges drop like period.
You know, and I'll just throw this out there. I'll take it a step further.
Mayor Sherelle Parker. Yes, ma'am. Ma'am. Ma'am.

(01:09:34):
You, you, you now have the stand. I'm going to need you to make things a little
bit better so that people like Zaire don't have to go through what they went
through. You have the power. The ball is in your court.
Ms. Parker, do something.
You know what I mean? I'll take it straight to the mayor. These kids need jobs.
Yeah. They need guidance. They need outlets. Positioning never had been. Big brother program.

(01:09:56):
Yeah. A lot of these young men don't have father figures.
And my son, his dad is not in his life or whatever.
But I think my brother knows he lived down south, but my brother calls.
He checks up on him. He talks to him all the time.
Like if Zaire or Zaki needs something, call Uncle Cash App or whatever. He'll do it.

(01:10:22):
And I'm happy that my brother is in his life that, you know,
he's able to be that role model for him and everything. My son looks up to him.
Kids need something to do they need
more programs they need people are
money hungry they are the black community is money hungry very much so they

(01:10:44):
need money so you order to get money you need jobs and you don't need jobs to
be looking at them any old type of way because they got a record half of these
jobs is getting money from the state yeah just for hiring y'all yeah.
I mean they've done a lot to remove access
for kids to have certain things in

(01:11:07):
schools they've closed schools they've shut down programs they've shut down
rec centers and they use the example of we have to budget this or we're cutting
the budget and it's like you don't cut the budget in Montgomery County go ahead
all that stuff is open wide open,
we go out there all the time Yep.

(01:11:28):
Now, this is what they say. They're cutting the budget. These things aren't available anymore.
If it's for us, more than likely they're going to cut it.
And then they wonder why everything is going to the left. Yes.
And they wonder why these things are happening.
They wonder why. Zaire, what would you say to your peers that might be listening
in reference to your experience, but also in reference to just kind of what to look out for?

(01:11:55):
You know because you you had an experience like
like no one else so so what would you say what kind of advice
would you give to your peers always stay on point
so always watch your back and don't
hang out don't hang out with with people that you think in your heart that's
gonna get you in trouble like if you have a gut feeling go go with it gotta

(01:12:18):
tell you everything because i had a gut feeling when i was down fenty street
that's why i wanted to go home so early.
I ain't go with it so I just I should've went with my gut feeling I would've
never been in a situation if I went with it don't beat yourself up about that.
Don't do that cause we all got gut feelings and sometimes we don't pay attention
to them so you know let your mom say wrong place wrong time.

(01:12:43):
Beat yourself up about that man that's a that's that's
a lot you know i i keep saying it's like you're 16
bro i'm 44 man i couldn't imagine
even what you went through i couldn't you know
so for you to be sitting here with us tonight and and telling your story you
know i honor you i commend you you earn this bro your your story is profound

(01:13:07):
your story is the story of other black young men out there, but this is your story.
This is your experience. It's what you went through.
And, you know, I really pray that you just have the wherewithal to keep going and keep pushing.
You know, it might not leave you, you know, it might stay with you for the rest

(01:13:28):
of your life, but just, just know, man, like you got bigger things coming to
you. You know what? And I'll take it a step further.
If you need a letter, a recommendation, you need a reference, we got you.
Between the three of us, yeah, you need anything, you let us know. We got you. We got you.
You're not by yourself. No, you're not. You're really not. We're doing a project

(01:13:51):
on Black men's mental health.
And you're the type of young man that a lot of the brothers that we talk to
understand and can relate to.
Black men in mental health, if you talked about how you were crying and when
you were in there and how, you know, by the time you stop crying,
you know, you really had to go through it.

(01:14:11):
You had to let those emotions out. Your thoughts are real.
Your feelings are real. Your emotions are real.
You're, you're a human before you, a black man, you're human.
And a lot of times they, they make us feel like we have to be a certain kind
of way in order to exist in the society we live in.
But you don't, you be yourself.

(01:14:33):
You be who you are. You know, you don't have to accept what happened,
but you know that your future is better than what happened on January 11th.
And I'm honored that you're sitting here with us. I'm honored that you got out.
You know, mom, like, you know.
Can give you your flowers right now like you you did a
hell of a job with raising your kids and raising

(01:14:54):
your twins and being a mom that you are because obviously
you have you have a great son here and you know
it's just some people thought that because he's a young black man that he's
automatically guilty that's not the case that's not it at all no not at all
you know and i never had to ask myself twice was he do you think no i know he

(01:15:16):
ain't do it yeah and they hit you with the same, oh yeah, that's what all the moms say.
Not my baby, not my baby, but you knew your child.
I know for sure. Yeah. Not mine. Yeah.
Mom, what would you say to parents out there that may have gone through this
experience or they may not have, but it could happen. They have teenagers in general. Yeah.

(01:15:39):
You got to stay pre, like, prayed up, make sure you have a good support system,
money, money to the side, because if you know your child is innocent, you have to fight.
And sometimes a public defender ain't going to do it.

(01:16:00):
So you might have to go the other route and get you a private attorney.
That's going to fight, but you got to stay on that lawyer also and make sure
he's doing everything that he's supposed to do. Yeah. Hmm.
One thing that I think is important is if you're a parent and you have a teenage kid, communication.

(01:16:23):
Let your kids know that they can come to you no matter what it is.
Communication is everything.
I mean, my sons come to me with a lot.
Her face said it all, right? Burning your ears. I don't want to hear it.
But mom, you can't call a guy and ask. No, mom.

(01:16:48):
Asking you.
I'm like, all right, I'll come back. Let me find out. And I'll come and do my research myself. Yeah.
And it shows that you had great communication. It does.
With your kids. It does. You know what I mean? Even when, you know,
you were like, hey, where are you? And you haven't gotten back to me.
You know what I mean? Communication.

(01:17:09):
Because there are some parents that don't check up on their kids.
Don't care what their kids are doing. that their kids run the street,
and that was not you, Mom.
Yeah, because his brother was supposed to come straight home from school that day.
I said, I talked to you three times, and you ain't coming straight home?
Yeah. Crazy. I mean, like I said, there are some parents, they don't know where

(01:17:32):
their kids at. They don't know what their kids are doing.
We can't thank you enough, brother, for coming in tonight, man,
and sharing your story and sharing your experience and telling the world how you feel.
There's no retractions over here. I'm going to tell you, your story is real.
Your story is what it is. It's all true for a fact. Not what media says. No sensation.
So we like to get it from the source. And we appreciate you for being that source.

(01:17:55):
Really. Honestly. T, anything you want to say, Mama?
Again, just I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that.
Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you.
Size always to every story always so
it was great to hear what you
had to say you know not even that but thank

(01:18:18):
you mom for coming in and you
know letting your son know that he wasn't by himself yeah
you know i mean it from the second that it happened
you had his back yeah you know so again
thank you both for coming in and
you know just telling your story and just putting it out there you are loved

(01:18:38):
you are appreciated very much Ty what you feel man just stay strong you got
piles of pants of water in your life nothing like piles of pants in your life just get back mom.
Anything you want to say I just want to say RIP
to Shadi and to his mom I

(01:19:00):
know she can't get him back
and I know it's hard you know dealing with
pain i have an experience so
i don't know exactly what she's going through yeah
but i have prayed for her and
her son and i pray that one day

(01:19:21):
she's able to get her life back
on track and try to move
forward yeah she can't forgive
the guy the guy for
you know murdering her son but she
had to forgive him her heart yeah and i just want to say that i'm sorry this

(01:19:43):
had to happen to her personally i would never i don't never want to experience
something happening to one of my twins because i don't know yeah where i would be if
something happens to one of my kids. I understand.
I definitely understand. You know, I said, but when I called you,

(01:20:03):
I wasn't, you know, we, we, we got a referral to interview you and shout out
to our referral. I'm just going to say that.
But you know, when she told me about it, I was, I was real taken back.
Cause I'm like, you, I don't watch the news. I stopped watching it.
Cause it's beyond depressing. That's what they would say. Right.
But she's telling me the story. And I remember glimpses of seeing it,

(01:20:27):
like you said, no guns on, that kind of thing.
And when she started telling me the story, I already knew what it was hitting
on. I was like, they just ran him through the mud.
They took his name and just ran with it. They didn't care. And I said to myself,
you know, it would be great for you and him to come on.
Have a voice. To have a voice without any interruptions or without any editing, as they would say.

(01:20:51):
Where you could just say what you need to say, talk about your experience and
really let the public know, like, this is what we went through and this could be you too, you know?
So I appreciate you even for receiving the call and accepting to come on tonight.
Taken back and truly humbled by just by what

(01:21:11):
y'all went through man this isn't this ain't
for the faint of hearts i would say sometimes people you know they want to
just have fun all the time life ain't always fun the same
it's as it's ain't for the week of the 10 minutes they would say right yeah
you gotta be strong you gotta have a strong support system you gotta have a
strong mind yeah you really do in order to deal with everything because it could

(01:21:35):
have been a long process of us. It could have been.
He could have been in there for he said he had guys that was in there with him
that had been in there a year, two years.
I talked to a mom that went through the same situation.
She said her son was in there for seven months.
Seven months. Wow. And she said I wish I was able to talk to someone that went

(01:22:01):
through the same similar situation where my son was locked up.
Let me ask you this real quick.
Are there any support groups for families like in your situation?
No, you just, I just got talked to that person through his mentor.
He hooked me up with the lady. He told me about her son and me and her spoke

(01:22:22):
on the phone and everything.
So there's really no place for families that have had this experience to come together and work.
I guess do work, as they say, together to heal through these things.
There's nothing like that that exists.
Yeah i definitely reach out daddy university and cheryl parker because whoever

(01:22:42):
the therapist was that we spoke with
last week doc yeah inspired and free definitely dr delisa martinez will,
definitely be something like that and you you
mentioned you know you talked about how hard it was for you to find a therapist like
we we just had a therapist on last week last week that that
dealt with families and youth and you know

(01:23:02):
couples therapy that kind of thing so i was sitting
there thinking to myself like oh she went through that much to find a therapist and
i mean no this is what it is it's true you
in order to find a therapist this is not like let me just get a
i mean just you know google it and find one that's not where it
goes particularly a black one or one that
understands your where you come from you know what i mean so it's not it's not

(01:23:25):
easy the therapist that he had in a youth study center she was a very good very
good but she wasn't black she was car key and she was hit because she knew.
Everything like certain blacks who got beef with this and this.
I'm like, you know, girl, you know a little bit more than me.

(01:23:47):
She was like, I got to. I got to working in here with these kids.
Yeah, it's her job. It's her job to know what's going on in these streets as
they would say, you know.
Thank you. No, thank you is an understatement.
I greatly appreciate you. We greatly appreciate you. You know, Ms.
Hannibal, Zaire, can't just thank y'all enough for coming on tonight.

(01:24:09):
This was, this is an eye-opener.
It's a real eye-opener. I hope to all our listeners out there,
everyone listening right now,
I hope that you felt the same way that we feel. This was an eye-opener.
And, you know, we, we got to make sure we continue to prep up Zaire where he needs to be.
You know, continue to give him that positive encouragement.
Let him know he has a family out here. Not even that, but this will not make you or break you.

(01:24:33):
Yeah, it won't, it won't, it won't.
So, you know, with that being said, family, we're going to take a,
I don't know, we're going to take a hiatus in this show.
It's a lot to be said. Well, you know, you can always call us with your comments
and your questions at 215-472-0881.
Again, it's 215-472-0881.

(01:24:53):
You can also email us at jimmybondspodcast at gmail.com.
Again, it's jimmybondspodcast at gmail.com. It's J-I-M-M-Y-B-O-N-D-S, podcast at gmail.com.
And as always, family, remember, call somebody.
Maybe a friend, might be a loved one, might be somebody you talked to yesterday,
somebody you haven't talked to in a long time.

(01:25:14):
Just call them and tell them you love them, because you never know when you
might get another chance.
So until the next episode, you can find us on Go Hope Road, screaming stay up,
don't sleep in your dreams.
My brother Ty, my sister T, Miss Hannibal, brother Zaire, I'm Jimmy Bonds,
and we out. Peace. Good night.