CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The last place Obi Henderson saw James Means was at a Sunday afternoon meeting of Dream Chasers.
The 15-year-old had gotten excited about a guest speaker from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — specifically about the guest’s electric car, which he was invited outside to check out.
“We had a breakthrough moment. They really bonded,” Henderson said. “James wanted to learn about how to fix cars and to be a businessman.”
The next evening — Monday, Nov. 21 — hope turned to tragedy. James was shot twice in the abdomen and later died at Charleston Area Medical Center’s General Hospital.
By now you’ve probably heard more of the awful details of what happened. According to a criminal complaint, James had bumped into 62-year-old William Pulliam outside the Dollar General on Charleston’s East End. The two exchanged words, and Pulliam walked on into the store.
A few minutes later, when Pulliam walked past the house where James and his friends were gathered, they continued to argue and James walked across the street to confront Pulliam. That’s when, according to the complaint, Pulliam shot James twice.
James was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Pulliam ate dinner and went to a friend’s home, according to the criminal complaint. That’s where police arrested him and located the .380 revolver believed to be the weapon in James’s slaying.
Pulliam told police he had felt threatened. “The way I look at it, that’s another piece of trash off the street,” Pulliam told investigators, according to the criminal complaint filed at Kanawha Magistrate Court.
Pulliam wasn’t supposed to have a gun in the first place after pleading no contest to a domestic violence charge in 2013. In that case, he was accused of striking his pregnant daughter in the face and kicking her in the stomach. He was also accused of shoving his wife to the ground.
Coverage of James’s death has been widespread, with stories by NBC News, CBS News, The Washington Post, Huffington Post and others.
Henderson, who runs Dreams Community Development Corporation, has turned into something of a community spokesman, and he is well aware of the weight of his words.
“My words can really be counter-productive or a useful tool,” he said. “When people speak from emotion and not from facts, things can go wrong.”
He said those who loved James want Charleston police to be able to do their jobs. Pulliam has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge. Charleston police asked federal authorities to determine if the killing meets the definition of a hate crime. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
“We want the judicial system to know the community supports justice for James,” Henderson said. “We don’t want James’s name to be forgotten.”
In a jailhouse interview with WCHS-TV, Pulliam denied he made the remarks to police and said the shooting had nothing to do with race.
“I don’t care if they’re white or black,” he told the television station. “Nobody is going to do me like that. It doesn’t make any difference if he’s black. My God, everybody that lives around here is black. I get along with all of them — ask them.”
Henderson said whether race played a part or not, an adult should have the sense to avoid that situation.
“This situation was an elder, an adult who knows right from wrong,” Henderson said. “Be the bigger person — not the person who goes to get a gun. That’s not what being an adult is.”
A GoFundMe page that was set up to help pay for James’s funeral expenses so far has been shared 11,000 times and has raised about $50,000. “That’s a blessing in itself,” Henderson said, “to show people stand against what happened.”
Henderson would like to honor James’s memory with a scholarship or possibly even set up a foundation.
He wishes James had been able to take part in some of the activities planned for the Dreams Community Development Corporation later next year — like a math boot camp or a summer community garden.
“Kids have unlimited potential,” Henderson said. “Some kids are not book smart but they’re visual learners. James wanted to get down and dirty with it. James could have been very hands-on with those activities.”
Over Thanksgiving, while at a community dinner, Henderson ran into some of James’s friends and siblings who were mourning but also carrying on with their lives. “There was a lot of grieving. Some of those siblings, it hasn’t really hit them,” Henderson said.
Henderson struggled to maintain his own composure and excused himself first to a corner of the room and then outside. He said one of the kids told him, “Mr. Obi, James wouldn’t want you to cry.”
“They had so much hope,” Henderson said. “To see these kids smiling while they’re trying to console me. If I break down and I’m weak, these kids need someone they look up to to be strong so they can maintain.”