11-year-old shot while getting jacket from car laid to rest, suspected killer behind bars
HOUSTON - A teenager who was actually out of jail on bond for another crime has been arrested and charged with the deadly shooting of Darius "DJ" Dugas, 11. This comes on the same day little DJ is laid to rest.
To say this is a difficult Friday for DJ's loved ones is an understatement. On the same day DJ’s parents had to take him to Brookside Cemetery and leave him there, they’re learning more about the teen with quite a criminal history who’s now accused of taking the 11-year-old's life.
RELATED: Residents outraged after 11-year-old boy shot, killed in Northeast Harris Co.
Even as friends and family attended the Home Going ceremony many continued to pray for justice for DJ. At least one car parked at his funeral even had those words written on the back window and during the service, those prayers were answered.
"This is not only just a time for a loss for the family of Darius, but this is a loss for that gentleman’s family as well," says Christia Bobb with Pruitt’s in the Heights Funeral Home which held the funeral at no cost to the family.
'You took someone very special': Mother speaks after 11-year-old son killed
The mother of an 11-year-old who was shot and killed at their Harris County apartment complex on Thursday shares her emotional testimony with FOX 26. She believes her son Darius 'DJ' Dugas was killed in the suspect's attempt to get keys to her car.
Daveyonne Howard, 19, was charged with shooting DJ to death as the 11-year-old retrieved his jacket from the family car at their Northeast Harris County apartment complex. Howard is in the Harris County Jail on an unrelated Robbery charge that allegedly occurred Sunday at Macy’s in Humble.
It also appears DJ and his accused killer were neighbors. Court records show they lived in the same apartment complex.
Days before that on February 3, 2022 investigators say Howard had been in another complex breaking into vehicles and was caught in the act. Detectives say the owner of the vehicle began chasing Howard to get his belongings back, and they say Howard ran into DJ’s apartment complex and opened fire on the vehicle chasing him, shooting and killing DJ in the process.
FOX 26 has learned Howard was actually out on bond for a 2019 Aggravated Robbery charge for allegedly robbing a food truck at gunpoint. His bond had been revoked for not following the rules, then it was reinstated.
Something so senseless has left a family trying to find a way to understand how to go on without the special gift God gave them only 11 years ago. After arriving at the cemetery by hearse, a horse and carriage took DJ or "King Darius" as his family calls him to his final resting place.
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One thing the pastor said while delivering the eulogy is anytime your heart begins to feel heavy at the thought of losing little DJ, instead strive to live a life that when you're gone, just like DJ people will continue to be positively impacted by you and will still say kind things about the way you lived.