THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512020570
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 127 lines
Panic engulfed Gloria Branton when the voice on the phone said her nephew had just been shot.
Here we go again. Another one we have to bury, she thought as her hands shook uncontrollably and her legs went weak.
For the second time this year, one of Branton's nephews had been gunned down on the violent streets of Portsmouth.
Shawn Rollins was lucky. He survived the two bullets that struck him down in Lincoln Park Monday night.
Rollins' brother, Branton's other nephew, was not as fortunate. On April 22, Earl A. Harris died after he was shot in the back of the head near Washington Park. While more than a dozen witnesses watched him die on the sidewalk, a man slipped through the crowd and rifled through his pockets, stealing his money.
A week before Harris' death, Branton had dreamed that Rollins had been shot and killed. The next day Branton told Rollins about her dream as they sat in her car.
After Harris' slaying, she thought she had warned the wrong nephew.
Now she knows the truth: She should have warned both.
The killing of Harris was one of 37 so far this year in Portsmouth, a record number.
Branton was so concerned that Harris' slaying would go unsolved that she took to the streets in search of his killer. She donned disguises, found witnesses and posted fliers that helped police make an arrest. But she was devastated when the suspect was freed after witnesses refused to testify against him.
Now, Branton is reeling from the shock of almost losing her only surviving nephew.
``We were just getting over Earl's death and trying to get that behind us,'' she said. ``How are we going to do this? How will we make it?''
Rollins, a 27-year-old skilled laborer, was shot once in the abdomen and once in the hip during a robbery in Lincoln Park.
``I didn't think he'd survive this,'' Branton said this week. ``I thought this is another one that we have to prepare a funeral for, and pick out a coffin for.''
Harris and Rollins, Branton's only nephews, have had a few brushes with the law. Harris, raised in Washington Park, and Rollins, from Cavalier Manor, were subjected to the drug-and-guns culture that permeates much of Portsmouth.
To remove Harris from that influence, Branton had convinced him to move into her Virginia Beach home.
Family members said he had straightened out his life when he was killed in a shooting over a years-old grudge.
Rollins said he was gunned down by a man looking for drugs, even though no drugs were involved in the shooting.
A police source confirmed that the motive was robbery and apparently was not drug-related.
Lying in his Norfolk hospital bed, Rollins said in an interview Wednesday that he was leaving his cousin's apartment in Lincoln Park Monday about 6:30 p.m. It was an unusually warm evening.
He stood outside the building waiting for several friends to pick him up.
As residents and visitors passed, Rollins was approached by a tall, light-skinned black man he recognized as an acquaintance who hung around the neighborhood.
``Do you have anything to sell? Do you have any bundles to sell?'' the man asked several times.
``I told him no,'' Rollins said.
But seconds later, Rollins said, the man produced a chrome handgun and said, ``Give it up, Shawn, give it up!''
``He was just as nervous as I was,'' Rollins remembered. ``His right hand was shaking as he held the gun.
``The first thing I thought was, I'm going to try to get away . . . I just ran.''
The impact of the first bullet spun Rollins, and he dropped to his knees. Then something strange happened, he said.
``A vision of my brother came to me and he said, `It ain't time for you to go yet, Shawn . . . Shawn, it ain't time for you to go yet,' '' Rollins recalled tearfully.
``I felt him there. I felt him holding on to me.''
The second shot caused him to collapse, and Rollins lay bleeding on the ground.
A crowd gathered, but no one came forward to help.
``When I looked up, it was a lot of people,'' Rollins said. ``It was so many people around me, I couldn't breathe at one (point).''
Faceless hands and fingers patted him down, rifling through his pockets in search of money, jewelry or other valuables.
``I didn't panic or nothing,'' he said. ``I just laid there.''
His cousin heard the gunfire outside and ran downstairs to see what had happened. A nurse, she screamed for someone to get help as she cradled her cousin's head in her arms.
``She held my head up and told me to hold on,'' Rollins recalled.
He was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where doctors operated for about three hours to remove the bullet from his abdomen. There was no damage to his internal organs. The second bullet remains lodged in his left hip.
The next day, Branton began her crusade again - this time calling all the people she knew in Lincoln Park and Washington Park for information about the shooter.
``The worst thing to me is knowing that someone killed a family member or anyone,'' Branton said. ``But when you're not able to do anything about it, you just have to live your life every day with that thought.''
Branton said she believes the assailant is a close friend of the man who was charged with slaying Harris.
The shooting could be be related to the five-year-old grudge that led to his Harris' death.
``Now we know who the killer is, and I want to see what the justice system will do now,'' Branton said angrily.
``With Earl's death, they made me feel that their hands were tied just because no one would come forward and say, yes, this is the killer.
``Now we know for sure, we have an eyewitness - my nephew - and he's able to finger the person,'' she said, ``but will justice be served?''
No arrest has been made, but police say one is imminent.
``It ain't nothing but two boys in the family, and one of them is dead,'' Rollins said. ``I'm angry, terrified . . . ,'' he said. ``I can forgive what happened to me, but I can't forgive what happened to my brother.
``I can never forget.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BILL TIERNAN, The Virginian-Pilot
Shawn Rollins, who survived the two bullet wounds, is recovering in
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
Color photo
Gloria Branton
KEYWORDS: ASSAULT SHOOTING by CNB