
DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709280071

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:  148 lines

VICTIM'S LOVED ONES, CITY DEBATE SITE FOR MEMORIAL

After 19-year-old Michael L. Hedge was killed on a basketball court on Father's Day, his mom, Debbie, struggled to find ways to make sense of it.

She talked to her sister Judy, two to three times a week. She leaned on her husband, Tommy.

She even turned to shows such as ``Montel Williams'' for therapy. She said she could tearfully relate to the show's guests who also had lost children to murder.

But the photo memorial her husband created in Hedge's honor helped Debbie L. Miller the most.

The 4-foot-tall wooden frame encases a retrospective of photographs of Hedge and was erected on the basketball court near Simonsdale Elementary School.

But the memorial brought trouble as well as comfort to this community.

The struggle over what to do with it has prompted some in this city to step back and examine how Portsmouth should deal with those left to grieve.

The issue is bigger than markers and memorials. It's about how a city - especially one like Portsmouth, grappling to improve its image - deals with the lingering effects of killings.

It's about a family and friends struggling to heal but also crying out for answers about youth violence.

And it's about a community worried about the psychological effects violence has on youths - as well as their safety.

The memorial started as a simple stone marker.

Shocked by the killing, neighbors tried to find ways to deal with it, said Simonsdale Civic League President Karen S. Jordan.

It had been the first such incident they could recall near their neighborhood of modest one- and two-story frame houses that border Baines Creek.

The residents collected money for the marker, and it was placed near the court where Hedge loved playing pickup games and where his life ended following a dispute with several teens.

A townhall meeting was called. A prayer vigil was organized at Simonsdale Presbyterian Church. There was a ceremony to dedicate the marker.

But the simple marker soon became much more.

Hedge's friends gathered at night near the marker. They left votive candles; they left pictures of Michael Jordan, Hedge's favorite player. They left ribbons in Hedge's favorite colors.

Aimee L. Moseberth, 19, one of Hedge's friends, left a card saying that she loved him. She met him when they attended Wilson High School. She described Hedge as a caring, fun-loving, giving person.

``He really loved his (fiancee) and family more than anything,'' said Moseberth.

The remembrances mushroomed.

Dawn Hobbs, Hedge's fiancee, encouraged his stepfather to build a memorial.

Tommy E. Miller spent a week making the memorial. It has special significance to him, as well, because he also lost a child on a Father's Day. In 1983, Miller's daughter, Sasha Brooke, who was then 5, was hit by a train.

When Debbie Miller looked at the assembled photographs of her son, tracing his life from boy to teen, she was warmed by his wide smile; his easygoing nature.

``I like looking at it,'' she said. ``I feel like Mikey's right there.''

The memorial was also a comfort for Hedge's friends, many of whom went to the site as a way to cope, to keep his memory alive. Supporters of the memorial say it also sent a message to other youths to not engage in violence.

``When you see something like that, you understand that a kid can get killed on a basketball court,'' said Debbie Miller. ``Something's got to be done, before it gets worse.''

But the memorial also was unsettling.

Some of the students at nearby Simonsdale Elementary were bothered by the vision of a smiling Hedge in his Little League cap and uniform, knowing that he had been gunned down on their court.

Jill E. Rich, president of the PTA at Simonsdale and vice president of the Simonsdale civic league, said her 9-year-old son, who also played Little League ball, came home asking questions. He couldn't make sense of why a teen-ager would be killed on a basketball court.

``He kept asking me if the bad people are going to come back,'' said Rich. ``I explained to him that it was a freak occurrence.''

Rich said a number of other children were upset by the memorial. She said the school called an assembly in which a grief counselor explained to the students how the death occurred.

Simonsdale Elementary School Principal William H. Slate, however, said that though there were some concerns from students, the assembly was called to discuss discipline, not the Hedge killing.

``The kids didn't really make a big deal out of it, unless it was on an individual basis, they spoke one-on-one with a counselor,'' said Slate.

Word of the parents' concerns reached City Hall, and Deputy Assistant City Manager C.W. Luke McCoy, decided to take the memorial down early this month and bring it to the Miller home in Loxley Place, where it is now displayed on their front lawn.

The Millers and Hedge's friends went to the City Council meeting on Tuesday, requesting permission to have the memorial returned. They also pushed to have lights placed on the court.

They found at least one sympathetic ear.

City Councilman P. Ward Robinett requested that the city administration develop a plan for such markers or memorials, perhaps decide where they could be placed.

``The question is: What does the city do? What is its responsibility as a governing body?'' Robinett said later. ``The whole focus of my remarks was to set a platform for the Millers and the city to get together. . . . What I've seen over the years is a need to deal with grief. As a city, we need to do all we can to help - but within the parameters. That's the balancing act.''

McCoy met with Debbie Miller and Lavonda C. Hobbs, Dawn's mother, Friday afternoon.

McCoy suggested that the stone marker be moved from the court to Friendship Park, a section in City Park. He also suggested that the family plant a tree in Hedge's memory there - rather than erect the photo display.

``I could not support them building a statute or memorial,'' said McCoy.

Debbie Miller and Hobbs said they would discuss the suggestion with Tommy Miller, who wasn't able to attend the meeting, as well as with a number of Hedge's friends.

They will meet again, they said, with McCoy and city officials later this month to discuss their requests for lights and for the memorial's return.

City Manager Ronald W. Massie - after meeting with Simonsdale citizens concerned that lights might actually cause crime - has recommended against putting them on the court, contending it could draw drug dealers.

Simonsdale civic league members sympathize with the family but are emotionally tired. They feel like they've done their best, and now they're trying to move on.

``Your community gets put in the spotlight, and you deal with it the best way you can. We weren't prepared for this,'' said Karen Jordan.

No matter what the city works out in the coming weeks with them, Hedge's family and friends say he should not be forgotten. Debbie Miller said she is waiting for Mayor James W. Holley III to get involved.

``Mayor Holley said that if there's a comfortable place for crime, that the city should do something about it,'' said Debbie Miller. ``He's overlooking it (the court), like it's not important.''

Holley was unavailable for comment on the matter last week.

Miller and Aimee Moseberth, would rather return the memorial to the court, to spur action to end violence.

``I want people to know you're not safe there,'' said Moseberth. ``I want people to know there are a lot of murders in this city and teens are going to continue to get killed. I want people to start doing something about it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Debbie and Tommy Miller, the parents of shooting victim Michael L.

Hedge, stand near the memorial for their son, at left, in front of

their home.

Photo

SPECIAL TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

The loved ones of shooting victim Michael Hedge often would leave

ribbons and other tributes at the site of this memorial for him. Its

placement at a basketball court near an elementary school upset some

of the school's parents, leading to its removal. Hedge's loved ones

protest the move. KEYWORDS: MURDER MEMORIAL