His family wasn’t too mad when then-5-year-old Darryal Grant Jr. accidentally set his grandmother’s couch on fire while playing with her lighter.
In fact, in the week since his death, the memory is one that brings comfort and emits a cheerful bout of laughter from his aunt, Tamika Frazier.
“I’m in the kitchen, well, I smell something like it is burning,” Frazier said. “He came to me with a look on his face like, ‘I didn’t do it.’ [It is] so funny to me.”
The couch is one of many stories Frazier tells about her nephew, 25, of Hilton Head, whose body was found March 16 lying on the ground near the St. Francis Thrift Shop on Southwood Park Drive on Hilton Head. His death is being investigated as a homicide, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.
A woman called 911 and told police that while she was dropping off her child at a nearby bus stop, she was stopped by a Hilton Head High School student who told her there was a man lying near the bus stop.
The Beaufort County Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy on March 16. Maj. Angela Viens, a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office, would not say how Grant died only that injuries found on the body support investigators’ belief that he was killed in a homicide.
Frazier told the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette her nephew was shot while out walking.
“We’re still unsure of exactly why it happened,” she said in an interview. “We’re not sure who would even bear ill will toward him to do something like this. He was a beautiful soul and he was taken away from us way too soon for a senseless act.”
‘There are too many taken away’
Grant, known as “D.J.” and “Kodak” to his friends and family, was a “clown” who would do anything to make those around him laugh or even crack a smile, according to his aunt.
“Not necessarily for laughter, just to get a smile on your face by telling people they’re so beautiful or telling me my sausage was good when he knew it was burnt,” she said.
He lost both of his parents as a teenager and, as an adult, his primary focus was being a good parent to his three girls who range in age from about 1 to 8.
“He had a great dad and he wanted to make sure he was a great dad,” Frazier said.
Grant’s father, who was Frazier’s older brother, died when he was about 14 years old in a car accident. Frazier told the newspapers she would not have made it through that time in her life had it not been for young Darryal holding her hand every step of the way. Now, as she prepares to say goodbye to him, she wonders who will hold her hand.
In response to his death, Grant’s family and friends scheduled several events throughout this past week to remember him and talk about gun violence, including a balloon release and candlelight vigil.
“There are too many taken away from us at early ages because of gun violence,” Frazier said. “We don’t need the guns and they’re not protecting themselves. They’re taking pieces of people away and this [Grant’s death] was a major piece of the community that was taken from us.”
A public viewing will be held in Beaufort from 4-6 p.m. Saturday at Marshel’s Wright-Donaldson Home for Funerals. A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church at 382 Squire Pope Road on Hilton Head Island.
Anyone with information about Grant’s death may call Sgt. Seth Reynells with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office at 843-255-3709 or Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111.