Asheville playground named after Derrick Lee Jr., whose killing remains unsolved

By Kimberly King

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — The 2018 killing of 12-year-old Derrick Lee Jr., of Asheville, was back in the spotlight Wednesday as one man works to keep the boy’s memory alive.

Jack Logan, who founded the nonprofit Put the Guns Down Young People advocated to have a playground named in the Lee’s honor.

The large, colorful playground stands out in the middle of the quad at Maple Crest, the public housing complex that replaced Lee Walker Heights.

Lee Walker was Asheville’s first housing project. And, in July 2018, Lee Walker was the scene of a July outdoor summer teen party where Lee was spending time with friends. It all changed to a night of horror, when someone began shooting.

Police said about 50 party attendees scattered. And when police arrived, it was Lee, a seventh-grader who attended Koontz Elementary, had been shot and killed.

Police believe he was an unintended target.

Now, more than three years later, Lee’s grandmother Charlotte Tolbert hopes someone with information about the shooting will have the courage to go to police.

“Deep down inside, I really don’t know how to handle this” said Tolbert, who was raising Lee.

Tolbert said Lee was a darling child. The hole in her heart from his death will never go away, she said.

“I just go in his room where he slept and just ball up on his bed in a knot,” Tolbert said.

With Christmas Eve just hours away, Tolbert will be with Lee’s siblings, but she will also have him on her mind.

“He’s not here with us and with family it’s very hard,” she said.

Lee’s four siblings, 19-year-old Alayia Dobson Tolbert, 18-year-old Alexius Tolbert, 14-year-old Darius Tolbert and 13-year-old Kataria Waters, miss their little brother, Charlotte Tolbert.

“We’re going to help Asheville police find out who killed Derrick Lee Jr.,” Logan said Thursday while standing in the middle of the playground now named for Lee. “I want children to see the sign that says his name and ask who he was and know what happened. We need people to help bring justice for him and his family.”

But justice has been elusive in the case. Asheville Police Capt. Joe Silberman, division commander of APD’s major crimes unit, said if witnesses who saw the suspect shoot Lee talk to detectives, he’s confident there would be enough evidence to make an arrest.

Charlotte Tolbert wants anyone who witnessed the shooting to think of her this Christmas. She wants anyone at the party who saw something to think of Lee’s four siblings. She said she knows there’s fear about coming forward, fear about being labeled a snitch or fear of retaliation. Her only hope is that witnesses are able to move beyond those fears and tell police what they saw.

“If you know the truth, tell the truth. I know if they came and told me, I will break down,” Tolbert said. “I will cry, because I’ll be happy that they came to me and told me that. I know my grandson would be at ease and my whole family, because right now we are not at peace.”

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