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Alajawan’s family finally finds answers Testimony in trial of man charged with 12-year-old’s death ended this week. BY DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
University of Washington student Ann Huynh, right, works with Bubi Dumas, a Renton High senior, on registering for the ACT test Jan. 27, during the University of Washington Dream Project day at Renton High. CHARLES CORTES, Renton Reporter
UW Dream Team gives RHS seniors opportunities they had When it started at Renton High five years “Now that I’ve been given all this ago, the project partnered between 30 to 70 knowledge, I want high school students with college student menWhen Dustin Dacuan attended Renton High to make sure other tors. School, he participated in the University of With the help of a grant from the Gates students have that Washington’s Dream Project, which helped him Foundation, the Dream Project has now exopportunity as get into the college. panded its outreach to the entire Renton High His parents didn’t know how to navigate the well.” Dustin Dacuan, senior class. Renton High School higher education system. Dacuan’s father has That’s about 270 high school students. grad and Dream Project a college degree but is an immigrant from the When Dacuan was going to Renton High Philippines. His mother is from Eastern Wash- mentor School, he remembers encountering a lot of ington but did not pursue college. students who didn’t see college as an option for The Dream Project offered Dacuan a mentor them. with knowledge about accessing resources for college and “Seeing that continue to persist in our own backyard in gave him a scholarship to attend UW. King County, that’s one of the things that really motivates Last Friday, Dacuan was back at Renton High with me to keep coming back,” said Dacuan. “Now that I’ve about 100 college student mentors offering help to the been given all this knowledge about how to access higher high school’s senior class. education and how to find those resources, I want to The Dream Project seeks to help first generation and make sure other students have that opportunity as well.” low-income high school students achieve the dream of [ more DREAM PROJECT page 18 ] going on to some form of higher education. BY TRACEY COMPTON
tcompton@rentonreporter.com
For three weeks the family of 12-year-old Alajawan Brown listened to the story in vivid detail of how their football-loving child had died, shot in the back on a warm evening in late April 2010. On Wednesday, whether 36-year-old Curtis Walker of Kent was the man who shot Alajawan was in the hands of a 12-person jury. Walker is charged with first-degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm; he’s a convicted felon. They had to sort out which testimony – and which witnesses – were the most credible. Throughout the trial, stories changed from what initially was told to investigators. In her closing arguments, senior deputy prosecuting attorney Kristin Richardson repeatedly turned to changes in the stories of Walker and his wife Shaleese. Most damning, in For updates on story Richardson’s view, was rentonreporter.com Walker’s admission that he switched cars near the 7-11 store where Alajawan was shot, thus placing him at the scene. He had told investigators he didn’t switch cars until farther away on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Alajawan died in the 7-11 parking lot. Richardson described how Walker, legs apart in a shooting stance, raised a .38 revolver and fired two shots, but not before Alajawan looked at him. “Alajawan knew he was going to die, so he turned and ran,” Richardson said. But one of Walker’s attorney, Jerry Stimmel, again made the defense’s contention that it was actually Rodrigues Rabin, who had come to the nearby Cedar Village Apartments with Walker, who shot Alajawan. Walker, Rabun and Johnathan Jackson were at the apartments, where a gun battle erupted between members of the Bloods and Crips gangs. Jackson was shot. Sheriff Sue Rahr was at the closing arguments, sitting next to Alajawan’s mother, Ayanna. “I couldn’t have written a more heart-breaking story,” Rahr said. That April 29 was a “big day” for Alajawan, she said. He had saved up enough money for new football cleats; he was on his way home fromWalmart.
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