You may not long remember the name Julius Greer Jr.
But you can be assured Malik Evans will not soon forget it.
In fact, it is likely he will carry it in his heart for the rest of his days.
They are both sons of Rochester, and this weekend was pivotal in their lives. For one it was his ascendancy to the mayoralty, for the other it was his transition to immortality.
One saw his life’s dream come true, the other had his life’s dreams snuffed out. One on the stage of the Eastman Theater, the other on the floor of an innercity bodega.
Malik Evans is Rochester’s new mayor. Julius Greer Jr. is Rochester’s first homicide victim of 2022.
One is 41, the other was 14.
Julius was walking to the corner store at North and Herald, one of those places they built a hundred years ago, where the immigrant family would live upstairs and the mom and dad and the kids would all work downstairs, provisioning the neighborhood. But that was a few generations ago, and things are rougher now. The German and Polish owners have all gone out, and the Italians, and after them the Puerto Ricans, and now most of them are owned by Middle Easterners, selling hair extensions and beer and, in the case of the Gold More Mini Mart at North and Herald, noodles.
That’s what Julius Greer Jr. was sent to get. Noodles. A little before 6, dinner time, on a Sunday, the day after New Year’s. He’d been off school for Christmas break, and had one holiday and then a second holiday and here it was the last Sunday of vacation, classes about to restart at the Leadership Academy for Young Men.
And he was going to get some noodles for supper.
A thin boy, eighth-grade, doing what his mother told him to do.
Walking down a Rochester street.
Rochester, New York, where, in 2021, 81 people were killed, 417 were shot, more than 200 were stabbed and almost 800 were carjacked.
Rochester, New York, where, with his son administering the oath and his wife holding the Bible, a street preacher’s son has promised a better day.
Rochester, New York, where, as he broached the threshold of the Gold More Mini Mart at North and Herald, Julius Greer Jr. was struck at least once by gunfire that sprayed the street. A car was shot up and he was hit in the back and through the door he staggered, stumbled, and fell, his life’s blood seeping into the floor.
And that’s where he died.
The firemen tried to save him and the medics tried to save him, but they couldn’t. A little boy, sent to the corner store to get some pasta for his mom to cook for supper, killed by evil, probably random evil, on the first Lord’s Day of the new year.
And talking to that family, hearing their sobs and seeing their pain, is how Malik Evans began his stewardship of the city of Rochester. A city where, he, growing up as a boy, had probably walked to the store himself. A city where one thin black boy grows up to be mayor, and another does not. Where dozens and hundreds do not, grow up to be mayor or anything else, because a heritage of violence has stolen their lives.
That’s what Malik Evans carried with him as he came to the office on his first work day as mayor.
That’s what Malik Evans will carry with him every day he is mayor.
This will not be the only family he comforts. He will sit on many couches. He will hold many hands. He will take part in many prayers. He will represent his city at many funerals.
But this isn’t about grief. This is about resolve. And how one leads to the other. And how a new mayor can lead to a new day. And how a new mayor can’t look the other way.
There is righteous might in Malik Evans’ denunciation of violence. There is moral power in his call for the community to rise against it. There is absolute truth in his decree that it cannot stand.
These first days will harden the resolve of all the days that follow. Malik Evans will fight violence, and all the evils that lead to it. There are many things the new mayor must do, but the most important will always be protecting its people. Its sons and daughters.
Malik Evans understands that.
And Julius Greer Jr. won’t ever let him forget.