A Bronx homicide victim was just weeks away from starting his dream teaching job and months from welcoming his first child with his longtime girlfriend when he was gunned down near his Bronx apartment, the Daily News has learned.
Demitri Dayshawn Dick, 24, was looking forward to starting his new job at Capital Preparatory Bronx Charter School when he was fatally shot in the head after getting into an argument with three men near Debs Place and Dreiser Loop in Co-op City around 7 p.m. on Aug 12.
Medics rushed Dick to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died three days later, his family said.
Dick “was passionate about being a role model for young Black men, and his career reflected this commitment,” his cousin Gisell Bennet said, delivering the eulogy at his funeral.
“He encouraged others to pursue education, complete college and strive for greatness. He dreamed of becoming a spokesperson, a leader and a voice for change. In many ways, he had already stepped into that role.”
Two weeks before his death, Dick had accepted a job as an eighth-grade science teacher at “his dream school,” Bennet said.
“He came in and he swept us away,” his new boss, Simone Hartley-Brooks, principal of Capital Preparatory School, said at his funeral. “He’s intelligent, passionate. I saw in him someone that we needed in our school for young boys, someone that would have left a lifelong impression on them, someone that they needed,” she said. “He will be missed.”
Dick’s girlfriend of three years is pregnant and due to give birth in December, according to Dick’s obituary.
“The little family they created will forever be a living testament to the love they shared,” the obituary reads. “Demitri’s greatest joy came from the love he gave and received. He was a devoted family man — a provider, a protector and a man with the biggest heart.”
Dick graduated from Fordham University in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and was pursuing higher education at the time of his death. Fordham University confirmed his undergraduate degree and said that he had completed coursework at the Gabelli School of Business over the summer.
“Our community is heartbroken by this tragic loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with the student’s family and loved ones,” Fordham said in a statement.
In addition to his passion for education, Dick loved sports and was a talented athlete. He was a wide receiver on his high school football team at Mount Saint Michael Academy. He had been a teacher for three years at the time of his death. He also loved video games, cars, food and fashion, according to his obituary.
“Good food, impeccable fashion and cars were three of Demitri’s greatest joys,” Bennet said. “He never turned down a plate of curry shrimp or perfectly fried chicken. His love for cars was undeniable.”
It was not immediately clear what the argument was about that led to the end of his life. The killers ran off after the shooting and have not yet been found, according to police.
Dick’s death is one of several tragic instances of gun violence that have ripped through the Bronx this summer.
After five murders in six days, plus several more people wounded, Mayor Eric Adams on Aug. 28 announced the deployment of 1,000 extra cops to the Bronx.
Four days earlier, a mass shooting had erupted inside a Bronx park during a basketball tournament, leaving one man dead, a teen girl clinging to life and three others injured. More than 60 bullets were fired around 7:25 p.m. at Haffen Park in Baychester, striking Jaceil Banks, 32, in the chest and Anthonaya Campbell, 17, in the head.
Medics rushed both victims to Jacobi Medical Center, where Banks died and Campbell was listed in critical condition with a bullet lodged behind her eye. Police arrested four suspects in that shooting, two of them minors.
Despite the borough’s beefed-up police presence, the violence continued on Labor Day, when one man was killed and four men were wounded when four shooters opened fire on a group outside an Allerton smoke shop. Five suspects, the youngest 16, were arrested and are facing murder charges.
The Bronx has seen more shootings so far this year than Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island combined.
About a third of all murders in the city this year — 69 out of 206 — happened in the Bronx. Despite the violence, the Bronx has seen a 19% drop in shootings so far this year compared to last year, down to 178 versus 220 people hit by gunfire by the end of August.
