Victorville homicide ay party

VICTORVILLE • Marquise Anthony Smith loved football and dreamed of playing in college.

According to family members, he didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs and hated guns. He was on home study, according to his uncle, because he wanted to stay away from the rough environment at some local high schools.

He’d recently started working at a restaurant to help his single mother support the family.

Smith was fatally shot outside a house party in Victorville late Friday night. He was 17.

“He was not gang affiliated,” said the uncle, Michael Severin, a 53-year-old bus driver living in Hesperia. “He had a lot of tattoos on him, but they weren’t gang tattoos. They were names of his sisters and brothers and mother.”

His voice trembling, Severin added, “He had tattoos of people that he loved.”

Smith lived in Victorville and was a youth football standout, Severin said. He was working his way back from a major knee injury and hoped to attend the University of Nevada Las Vegas with the aim of playing football there.

Raymond Martinez, co-founder of the High Desert Storm Pop Warner football team, said he heard from Smith recently.

“He wanted to start training. He said, ‘Coach I want to get back on the field, my knee’s ready,’” Martinez said. “He was a ‘yes sir, yes ma’am’ type of kid. ... It’s really hit my family hard. He was one of the kids that this wasn’t supposed to happen to. He was one who was making it.”

Bharat Bhanvadia, general manager of the Farmer Boys restaurant on Roy Rogers Drive in Victorville, said Smith had worked there part-time since February.

Smith worked at the restaurant Friday night and was scheduled to work again Saturday. Farmer Boys manager Michelle Long said she got a call early Saturday morning letting her know that Smith was dead.

“He wasn’t here long, but he was a good worker,” Long said. “He was just a really nice person.”

Workers at the restaurant are saving their tips all week to raise money for Smith’s burial, Long said.

According to a Facebook community page called “R.I.P. Marquise Anthony Smith,” a memorial car wash and barbecue is scheduled for Saturday at 9 a.m. at 12958 Navajo Road in Apple Valley. Martinez said High Desert Storm is also holding a car wash Saturday in the parking lot of the Lowe’s shopping center just south of the Mall of Victor Valley from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Though his legal last name was Smith, Marquise often went by his mother’s last name, Severin, according to his uncle. The county coroner incorrectly reported that Smith was 19 in a news release on Sunday.

Michael Severin said he’s heard a few theories about what happened to his nephew and why, but he admits he has no first-hand knowledge of the incident. Severin believes there are several eyewitnesses who have not come forward to help with the investigation.

“There was a lot of people there,” Severin said. “Somebody saw (the shooter). They know.”

Sheriff’s officials have confirmed that deputies were called to the 16500 block of E Street on Friday shortly after 11:30 p.m. for a report of shots fired. They found Smith with an apparent gunshot wound and he was taken to Victor Valley Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just after midnight Saturday morning.

Neighbors said dozens of teens were attending a party at the house.

Smith was in the driver’s seat of a Chevrolet Camaro convertible, apparently trying to leave when he was shot. The car crashed into the yard of Ruben Varela, who said he came out of his house and saw Smith slumped out of the driver’s seat with a gunshot wound to the head.

Varela said another male knelt over the body, wrapping a shirt around the victim’s head and screaming, “My brother! My brother!” According to Severin and Martinez, that was Smith’s 13-year-old brother.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials did not provide any further details about the case on Monday.

Shit is sad i can imagine lil man holding his bro while he slipped away. My hearts out for the family but this is why i stopped goin to house parties bacc home. Shit turns deadly too fast and tragedy often replaces the joy.