Nasir Debnam was an outgoing guy who loved to dance and joke around. He enjoyed playing basketball and riding dirt bikes, but but most of all, he loved his friends. If Nasir loved you, his mother Schwana Debnam said, it means he saw something special in you.
So when he lost two close friends to gun violence in 2017, one in January and another in February of that year. Schwana said it changed him.
“It really impacted his life,” she said. “He became angry. Now that I sit and think back to the things he went through, I’m just hurt that it took for me to lose him to realize what he was dealing with.”
Schwana described her son as a good person who got caught up in heading down the wrong path, but he wanted to do better. He had applied to work with a job placement agency and he had a start date, but it would never come to be.
Nasir was shot and killed in North Philadelphia on July 16, 2018. He was 21 years old.
“Once the streets get a hold of your kid, it’s a fight,” Schwana said. “It’s a life battle trying to get your child back. My son wanted to change.”
Nasir was born March 5, 1997 in Philadelphia. He had a sister, Cianni, 20, who is a student at Penn State University.
He grew up playing basketball at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center at 22nd and Cecil B. Moore, and when he reached high school he joined the team at Freire Charter School at 20th and Chestnut.
Nasir was good at math, and he could even do Schwana’s college-level math homework. Reading, however, was a struggle, and he acted out due to his frustration. Still, his teachers stuck with him, and he graduated from Freire in 2016.
“Freire was a no-nonsense school, and for them to keep my son and deal with his nonsense, they had to love him,” she said. “I can’t thank them enough.”
The school retired Nasir’s No. 4 jersey after he was killed. Schwana said she plans to speak with administrators about setting up a college scholarship in Nasir’s name for a Freire basketball player as a way to give back for all that they did for her son.
No arrests have been made in Nasir’s homicide, even though Schwana said she feels she knows who killed Nasir.
“It just amazes me how the justice system works,” she said. “People don’t want to snitch, but when are they going to realize that no snitching is causing us to lose more lives? I don’t want another parent to have to lose a child.”
Nasir with his friend Samir “Saddi” Fortune, who was killed in February 2017 at age 18.
She added: “You’re forced into this club to grieve and mourn your child. It’s a club that no woman or no parent wants to be in.”
Nasir was an organ donor, and as a result, two people can see after receiving his corneas, and another person received his bone marrow.
Nasir’s funeral was held at Emmanuel Institutional Baptist Church, and he is laid to rest at Mount Peace Cemetery, not far from Schwana’s grandmother, grandfather and aunt.
“I can get closure that he’s not alone,” she said. “He’s around people that truly loved him.”
In addition to his mother, sister and other family, Nasir is survived by his daughter, Paris Corbitt, who is almost 3.
The City of Philadelphia is offering up to $20,000 as a reward for anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Nasir’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.
Date: 2018-07-16
Location: 1800 N. Bucknell St. , Philadelphia, PA
News stories:
http://www.fox29.com/news/local-news/police-man-21-shot-and-killed-in-north-philadelphia
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