15Nov

I Thought I was a good friend (Am I My Brother’s Keeper?)

Hello My name is Rodney Glenn Evans Jr. and this is the story of my life, hopefully short and simple. In traggic situations some if not Most should remember everything verbatum!

I am a born and raised native of Arizona, and grew up mostly in prodominant neighborhoods of hispanics and caucasian. I myself am African American. I have one younger sibling a brother, and we grew up in a household with one parent. Which is common in the world we live in today with any ethnic background. While growing up, it pretty much was my brother and I watching out for eachothers back when it came to hanging out with the other children of different cultures. Becoming of age to get out of the house and to come back home for curfew, my brother had met a different crowd of friends more his age, skate boarding and who knows which. But every time he would get into a little mix up, I, as being the older sibling would come to his aid. Ofcoarse the situation wouldn’t be as terrible as a younger sibling would make it sound, almost like ” The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf “. But yet I would get him out of it. At this time of being a 15 year old boy, I had finally met somebody with the same everything as myself. Same race, also grew up in a one parent home, and did’nt have a large nor small circle of friends as I did. He and I hung around eachother for so much and for so long we started to call one another brother. He being older than I, he was my Big Brother, and I was his little brother. I learned how to talk to girls with him, learned how to get around town with only a small amout of money etc. I looked up to him as my rolemodel. Unfortunately we had to part ways. My Mother was addicted to crack cocaine, and my brother and I were sent to go live and complete schooling with my Father. After I graduated from Highschool in 2005, I moved out and relocated in Tulsa, Oaklahoma. I had still kept in contact with my relatives, my grandmother mostly. She gave me updates on how my little brother was doing and how my mother was in her process of going to rehab to quit her addiction. On my second month in a new city and town I had received a phone call from my grand mother stating that my mother was getting out of rehab and she was needing help with getting back on her feet. I had said to my grandmother ” Thats good and I wish her luck”, but my grandmother had another agenda. She said, ” If you wont come back and help your mother get on her feet thats fine, but do it for me”. I was on the next flight out I didn’t have much and I traveled light. I came back a few weeks before Thanksgiving. It was okay but after that, it was down to business. I helped my mother get an apartment and helped her establish two vehicles in less than 7months. My birthday was in march, so I’m now 19 years of age and has done the wishes of/for my grandmother. In the month of July 2006, I started to get back intouch with my little brother. He was upset that I had left him alone with our father and that things have changed in the relationship with the two. I tried to ask what was going on with them. He stated that it would be best to tell me the details in person. Slowly but steadly he start to tell me details that our father was threatining to kill him and knew of where to bury him without getting caught. I had to re-evaluate everything that he was telling me. My little brother in my own eyes, is the liitle boy who cried wolf. But he had said, that he has told the police and has had child protective service come to the home of where he stayed at and nothing was done. He also has ran away a few times before that. I’m already knowing that we have a very stern father with rules from A to Z. But for my own brother to tell me this, I had to talk to the source of why these accusations were being said. I had got on the phone with my father and started to ask questions to why my brother would say these things about him, and about what he was planning. I guess you can say I got the answer I was looking for. ” To stay out their business and what was going on did not concern me”. I being the older brother was only doing what I thought was right. I started to move my brothers belongings piece by piece, until the big move was final. I had already purchased a street handgun by then, just in case things escalated. I was at work when I got the call from my brother, ” Rodney bro, I need to talk to you it’s important can you please come pick me up from school”. I drove all the way from Tempe, Arizona to the district of Peoria, Arizona, to a school named Peoria Accelerated. By the time I had arrived to pick my brother up, I had seen that my father was there before I. so I just proceeded to drive past them, I made a right to a side street and seen that I was being followed by them (My Brother and Father). I had then pulled over to the side of the road thinking that they were just going to pass me, but other intentions were made by my father. I’m driving a convertible mustang, with the top down seatbelt on parked on the side of the road. My father stops his vehicle in the middle of the road, there was no other traffic but our two vehicles. But as he gets out his car he decides to shout out at me using profanity etc. As he approached my vehicle he slaps me on the back of the head saying,” You wanna Be a F#ing man, get out of your car and we can handle this”. I said to my father tell me why my brother is saying what he is saying then. My dad said “Get out of the car and find out”. Nothing happens I stayed in my vehicle, my focus was on my brother and his well being. I was looking at him in the car and was in seeing if he was okay at that time. My father then got back in his car, and proceeded to drive away. By the time he had got to a stop sign, I immediately pulled to the passenger side window, just informing my little brother that things will be okay. My brother being caught up in the middle of words being said to him, my father and brother said the two things I will never forget. Father,” Don’t f#ing look at your it’s the last time you will see him”. as the window was being rolled up, he hits my brother in the face, my brother gets all vamped up trying to take his seatbelt off,and kicks his door open. I had seen that my father caught his seatbelt and had it snug in his grasps. My brother ” Rodney… he’s reaching under his seat for his gun!!”. Once I had heard that, that’s when I pulled out my weapon, pointing it directly at my father, shoutin out ” let my brother the f#k go. when my little brother seen the weapon in my hand he shouted back to me f#ing shoot him already. When I heard that, I pumped my breaks, I was only using the weapon as a scare tactic, but my brother wanted more than that. when my father seen me with the weapon he let go of my brother, and my brother hopped in my car and we left. As all this was going on we had backed traffic with wittnesses. Later on that night, my mother, brother and I decided that it was best to get it all over with and just get the rest of his belongings that night. By the time we arrived in the neighborhood my brother had contacted one of his friends to help with the moving out of his stuff. I picked him up only due to that he lived on the same road, and was down the street from him. My mom had contacted my fathers girlfriend and was told the he was not at the house, so we had the green light to move his stuff. By the time I arrived to the house I seen that my father was infact there and was sitting outside as if he knew we were comming. then the chase happens. My father starts to chase us through the neighborhood, speeding up and down streets so that he would’nt keep up. When I had lost sight of him I just said mybe tommorow we can and if your friend wants to spend the night over at my house he can. But all that time I guess my father was on the phine with the police. The police pulled me over, wanted to know what my day consisted of and how is it that I’m in the spot I am in now. I tried to explain my case, they asked if they can search my vehicle, I said that’s fine I do not have anything to hide there is nothing in my car. I’m 19 driving in a car with two minors 16 years of age. A police officer re-asks the question he had already asked me earlier. I said, ” There is nothing in my car that I didn’t put there myself. The officer said what’s with the marijuna. I explained or tried to explain that its not mine and that it had to be one of the other two passengers. Well they were asked and neither one admitted to it being their’s, I had to take responsibility because it was my car. Later on down the line with the court case, my brother was they key witness/ victim to everything that happened in July 2006. But everytime my court date would come up and he would be called to the stand he would leave and nerver be found till later in the night. The third party witnesses realized it was a dispute with two son’s and a father and decided that I should be on probation. If only my brother was there my whole case with Disorderly Conduct/ and possession of marijuna would be dropped. But my brother is nolonger a keeper. It hurts so bad that even he has wished everything in the book bad for me. And was glad for my charges and wanted more. He even told me he wanted to take two birds out with one stone. His father dead and me either dead or life in prison, all because I left his side.