Lee’s Summit woman honors legacies of son, brother during gun violence awareness week
Christopher Hutson Jr. was driving back from an ultrasound appointment with his pregnant girlfriend in May 2017 when he got lost.
He had just started to get to know the streets of Kansas City behind the wheel. Driving slowly, he was trying to navigate on Holmes Road near Interstate 435.
Then a driver behind him, upset by Hutson Jr.’s driving, pulled up and fired shots into the car. A bullet grazed Hutson Jr.’s girlfriend and struck him between the eyes. Barely 19, he died the next day on May 26.
“He was a lover and a protector and had the softest, kindest spirit,” said Carthesa Dillard, Hutson Jr.’s mom, of Lee’s Summit, who had been on the phone with her son moments before the shooting.
“One of the things that I loved and hated about him was that he lived in the world thinking everything is safe and people love people. But that’s just not how it is in this world.”
John Young, the driver who killed Hutson Jr., was sentenced in 2018 to 24 years in prison after a Jackson County jury found him guilty for involuntary manslaughter and other charges.
This week marks the fourth annual National Gun Violence Survivors Week, established to honor those who have survived gun violence or lost a loved one to it.
“It’s our opportunity as the survivors who are alive to breathe life into the legacy of the ones that are gone. They can’t tell their story,” Dillard said. “It’s up to us to continue to try to create that change and keep their legacy alive.”
National Gun Violence Survivors Week runs from Feb. 1 to 7, marking the approximate time that U.S. gun deaths surpass the number of people who die from gun deaths annually in other high income countries, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. The week is organized by nonprofits Everytown and Moms Demand Action.
Not even three years prior, Dillard lost her youngest brother in an accidental shooting. Jamond Dillard, 18, was killed in August 2014 by a friend playing with an unsecured gun at a home in the 8400 block of E. 98th Terrace.
“He was just a ball of energy. He was funny, he was silly, the prankster and just a great kid,” Dillard said.
Her brother, the baby of seven siblings, died just two weeks before he was supposed to go to college.
“To go through the process of having someone abruptly ripped out of your life due to gun violence is devastating,” Dillard said. “And it causes a ripple effect for the people who are left behind to deal with such a tragic loss.”
After the loss of her son and brother, Dillard and her husband, Christopher Hutson Sr., started Breathe In Me Life In You, an organization focused on teaching youth conflict resolution skills to prevent confrontations from erupting into violence.
The Kansas City area organization offers mentor programs and workshops that teach K-12 kids how to deal with moments of frustration and anger and to channel those into something positive, Dillard said.
