Amarion Adams

SAN BERNARDINO - For Deborah Adams, reminders of her 6-year-old son's death are everywhere.
They're on the front page of the newspaper when another person has been killed in a San Bernardino shooting.

They're on the faces of other grieving parents she sees at the cemetery where her son is buried.

And Saturday - the two-year anniversary of Amarion Adams' death - is a day of more painful reminders.

"I'm holding on, but it's still like yesterday," Adams said. "It's not ever going to go away."

It's a case that appeared to be headed toward some sort of closure. An arrest had been made, and other suspects were being sought. But then in February, the investigation crumbled, and the suspect - 19-year-old

Candles and photos of Amarion sit on his family's front porch on Friday. (Micah Escamilla/Correspondent)Kendrick Jackson of San Bernardino - was released from custody due to a lack of evidence.
San Bernardino police homicide Sgt. Gary Robertson said several issues, including the credibility of witnesses and problems identifying Jackson as a shooter, led to the case being dropped.

He says the case still can be solved, and there are witnesses who can help police.

"We definitely know that there are people who know what happened, outside of the people we've already talked to, who won't come forward for a variety of reasons," Robertson said.

Adams said May was a particularly painful month for her, when homicides surged in the city. Seeing arrests made in some of those cases was frustrating because her son's case remains unsolved.

"I see in the paper every single day, where someone has turned themselves in, or they were turned in for killing grown people, but no one wants to turn themselves in for killing a 6-year-old child, who never would have even hurt a fly," she said.

Her sister, Donna Moreno, said all types of crime reported in the news reminds her of what happened two years ago.

"It's kind of like opens up new wounds," Moreno said. "We just feel as though Deborah's family needs some kind of closure to this."

Amarion was standing outside a house with family members in the 2000 block of West 14th Street on June 13, 2010, when several people in a car approached. Someone in the vehicle opened fire on the crowd, striking the child and four other people.

Police have said the shooting was a retaliation for an earlier confrontation between rival gangs, but none of the victims were the intended targets.

The other victims survived.

Amarion died three days later at a hospital.

Adams says she won't seek grief counseling because she doesn't believe it will help. She has been trying to attend a support group with other people who have lost family members to violence.

Meanwhile, Moreno says her sister has found some solace in talking to other parents during her daily visits to the cemetery. Some of those people also have lost children in shootings.

"They share their stories," Moreno said.

But even with all the prayers and support from her family and others, Adams still deals with the frustration that no one has stepped forward to help solve the death of her son.

"How could anybody be so heartless and live with themselves knowing what they did?" she said.


This shit is really messed up, lil man had his whole life ahead of him. Had this been my lil man I don't kno how I could keep goin. His mom is a really strong woman. Rest in peace lil Amarion Adams.