MINNEAPOLIS — In her first interview since the death of 15-year-old Deshaun Hill, his mother, Tuesday Sheppard, began with a simple plea.
"I want justice for my son," Sheppard said. "He was a good kid and he did not deserve this."
Sheppard, along with Deshaun Hill's father, Deshaun Hill Sr., and his older sister, Talina Hill, all had no shortage of adjectives to describe how good of a kid he was.
"Brilliant, handsome, everything," Talina Hill said. "That and a bag of chips."
"He was an honor roll student," Sheppard said.
The Minneapolis North High School sophomore quarterback has a room packed full of trophies, and both academic and athletic accolades, but his mother says it's his varsity letterman jacket — which still looks pristine — that says the most about the kind of young man he was.
"He was very humble," Sheppard said. "He didn't even wear it to school that much, probably twice, because he didn't like all the attention that he got from his coat."
Sheppard says her son was actually trying to help bring attention elsewhere on the day he died. She says her son had left school to attend a sit-in at Minneapolis City Hall for Amir Locke, who was shot and killed by Minneapolis Police during a no-knock warrant. But on his way to try to catch a city bus, Sheppard says someone shot him. He suffered grave injuries and died a day later.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office has listed Deshaun's official cause of death as a gunshot to the head.
"I drop my kids off at school, I pick them up from school, because I didn't want this to happen, and look what happened," Sheppard said. "This is why I take him to school every day, because I didn't want this to happen. But it still happened and it just don't make any sense."
Minneapolis Police have released very little information about the shooting, but say the investigation continues.
"They said they have leads, that's all they keep saying," Sheppard said. "My son was by himself and this person crossed paths with him, and whoever killed him, you need to turn yourself in. His birthday is next month and he is always going to be 15 because of you. Because of you. You know who you are. Turn yourself in."
RELATED: 15-year-old student killed, school bus driver wounded in separate shootings in north Minneapolis
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