Family remembers 15-year-old killed in Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – One of the latest victims of gun violence in Augusta is 15-year-old Dewayne Grissum.

Authorities say he was shot around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on Helsinki Drive.. He was taken to hospital, where he later died.

On Friday, Devane’s family continues to search for a path forward with limited information on potential suspects.

“He took a part of me. Yes, definitely. He took a part of me, and I don’t know if I’ll heal from it, you know,” said Telisha Grissum, Devine’s aunt.

We caught up with Dewayne’s family to see how they are honoring his life.

Moving forward without Dewayne will be difficult for his family.

They’re already thinking about how different the holiday season will be without him.

But Dewayne’s family wanted to talk to us to share his story and their call for the community to lay down their arms.

Life ended too soon.

“We’ll never get it. They will be able to see their children grow up, but we will never be able to see how he grows and progresses and what it could have been like for him to always be 15 years old,” Telisha said.

Devane loved his family and his family loved him.

“If I had known it would have been the last time I saw him, I would have hugged him a little tighter. I’d like to talk to him a little more. You never know the last time you will lose someone you never know. And losing a child to gun violence is hard,” Telisha said.

On the day Dewayne died, his aunt says, “I remember almost falling to the floor at Walmart in North Augusta when I found out he had been killed.”

His family wants you to hear their heartbreaking plea.

“The cemeteries are filling up with our children. They don’t have a chance at life or even the experience of life to understand what life is. At 15 you don’t know what life is,” Telisha said.

Devine’s family doesn’t want another family to feel their unbearable pain.

“Right now they’ve put this family under a lot of stress because now we have to worry about how we’re going to bury this 15-year-old because it’s so unexpected,” Telisha said.

Deputies are investigating a suspicious death after finding a victim on Lumpkin Road.

Together, his family decides to remember Devine for the life he lived.

“He loved to play basketball. He loved to do somersaults like gymnastics. He kept turning over. He was a joke. Every time you see him, he always jokes about how he’s having fun,” his aunt said.

In their eyes, he is forever 15.

“I speak on behalf of his father, his mother, his grandmother. I speak on behalf of my family. This is pain that we will have to endure for the rest of our lives,” Telisha said.

So far, no arrests have been made in connection with Devine’s death.