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Kent Brooks Sr. - Father of Shooting Victim
"Sunday morning about 8:40am, the doctor at the ICU called us and told me emergency. My sister and I went to the hospital at 8:46am and the doctor told me that my son had just passed away. We went in the room and we saw him. He had just drawn his last breathe."

Emanuel Pech
"How is the extended family dealing with it?"

Kent Brooks Sr. - Father of Shooting Victim
"Basically everybody was praying that he recovered, because we knew the gravity of the injury. The injury was very serious. We had left everything in God hands. We accept what happened and that God had gotten him - he is resting. He will be at a resting place, than to see how he was suffering for the last 10 days. We were praying that we see him survive, but God knows best. It took an emotional toll on me, the whole family; sisters and brother. Whenever they would go see him, they would cry. We know that God knows best. We can't question God's work."

The family says they are very grateful to the doctors who tried to save him and to all the persons who assisted in donating blood.

Now with another casualty in the shooting at La Croix Boulevard, will there be yet another retaliatory shooting? Brooks's father says that is the last the community needs. Today he implored the youths of St. Martin's to put down the guns for the sake of the grieving family and the community at large.

Kent Brooks Sr. - Father of Shooting Victim
"All I have to say to the youths in the streets who are dealing with the violence, to try peace. We need peace in this country. We need to get together and talk things over. Just peace - just that."

Emanuel Pech
"You dont want more casualties?"

Kent Brooks Sr. - Father of Shooting Victim
"No. I dot support any revenge. I just want the youths to just put down the gun and peace. Because its black you killing black youth over and over. The country is getting rough. We don't need that."

So, while Kent Brook's unfortunate death pains his family, it is also a huge problem for police. They say that they know exactly who the gunman is that shot and killed both youths. And while witnesses have spoken to police to informally ID the shooter, nobody is brave enough to make a sworn statement. Today Southside Commander Chester Williams made a public plea to those witnesses to help them stand up to the criminals:

ACP Chester Williams - O.C. Eastern South Division
"We were hoping for the best that he could have recovered and would have been able to shed some light on that ongoing investigation, but unfortunately that did not materialize. We basically have an idea who is the trigger man behind those two murders, but the difficulty always is getting people to give statements as it relates to what they may have seen in respect of these incidents. And this is where we wish we would be able to get more cooperation from the public, because there were many people around when this incident took place and many people saw what took place. But, because of fear, people are afraid to come forward and give evidence or give statements. Yes, they speak to us behind the scenes, but to reduce what they have to say in writing is another issue. And so, the investigation this time is at stand still. We are hoping that maybe someone will come forward and give us the statement that we would need to proceed further with that investigation."