Government

Decades of Pain: Family Seeks Justice for Father and Brother’s Unsolved Murders

Shamoi Elmes was 11 months old when his father was murdered in November of 1990. His killer was never found. “That is still what you call a cold case. There have been no updates, no leads, no arrest,” he told the Consortium. In September 2020, tragedy struck again – his older brother Secori Elmes was gunned down near the basketball court of the Oswald Harris Court public housing community, his childhood home. Four years onward, Mr. Elmes fears that his brother’s case is following the same trajectory as his father’s.‌ “I have had challenges in my own life, just trying to navigate the whole idea that you’ll never meet your dad, you never got that opportunity,” he said. While he acknowledges that death, even untimely death, is a part of life, the lack of justice for his father – and perhaps now his brother – is a source of constant concern. “I have already spent my entire life without my dad, without justice, and then now my brother…that’s my big brother, you know what I’m saying? He’s s...