In the cold of a Michigan winter, the city of Flint marked the beginning of a new year with a somber event. On Saturday, January 11, 2014, 21-year-old Dericko Carter, a male resident of the city, became the first homicide victim of the year. The young man's life was cut short by an act of gun violence, a fact that would be confirmed by local authorities.
In the days that followed, family and friends would gather to mourn the loss of a son, a father, and a friend, while the community was left to grapple with the violent start to the year.
Dericko, known to some as 'Dee,' was remembered as a loving father to his daughter. He had a passion for basketball and was part of a championship-winning team at Mt. Morris Alternative High School. His family, in their time of grief, prepared to lay him to rest, holding a funeral service at the Lawrence E. Moon Funeral Home. He was buried in Gracelawn Community Cemetery, leaving behind a grieving family and a community searching for answers.
Despite the public acknowledgment of his death as a homicide, information regarding the investigation into Dericko Carter's death has been scarce. In the years that have passed since his untimely death, there have been no publicly available reports of any arrests made or suspects identified in connection with the shooting. The case, like many others in the city, has seemingly gone cold, leaving a void for his family and a lingering question of who was responsible for the act that took a young life and marked a violent start to 2014 in Flint.
