The wind worked hard last Tuesday night, but the man in a black hoodie and sunglasses worked harder. As quickly as the breeze snuffed out the candles set up to honor Reginald Foreman, he was there with a stick to relight them. “Got to,” he said, picking up another candle.
He and Foreman, known to many as “Baby Ant” or “B.A.,” had been friends since childhood, he said. As a matter of fact, the passenger seat in his car was still reclined from when the two were last driving together. He’d left it that way, expecting he’d see his friend again soon, he said. They’d even talked twice on the morning of August 6. Then, just hours later, came the devastating news: Foreman had been shot and killed just south of 59th on Crenshaw, while out doing cleanup work for Destination Crenshaw with other team members from 2nd Call – an organization dedicated to violence reduction and the personal development of those whose early life trajectories were shaped by disinvestment, overpolicing, and the carceral system.
Now, five days later, at the vigil for Foreman’s close friends and family, he was still feeling adrift. “I won’t move the seat [back],” he declared, his voice breaking. “I’ve been f*cked up for days! That was my bro. This sh*t affected everybody.”
The outpouring of grief on social media, including from Destination Crenshaw and 8th District Councilmember and City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, speaks to just how many lives the 51-year-old Foreman had touched. From those he came up with in the streets, to the kids he coached, to the friends and family he left behind, to the mentees he inspired, he was widely beloved. The fact that he’d been gunned down while actively working to improve his community compounded their sorrow.
At the vigil, mourners spoke to the qualities that made the father of three so endearing: his loyalty, his sense of humor, his faith, his capacity for growth, his love for his family and for working with kids, and his dedication to safer streets for his community…