On New Year’s Night, Smothers became a statistic
Mitch Albom / The Detroit Free Press
The first hospital she called was St. Mary’s which was just across the street from where Daniel took the bullet.
“I’m looking for my son,” Debry Davis said over the phone. “They say he’s been shot. Do you have him there?”
What’s his name, the voice asked.
“Daniel Smothers. He’s 18.”
No, came the answer, we do not have your son here.
Davis hung up. Her hands were shaking. She tried the next number. St. Luke’s Hospital.
“I’m looking for my son,” she said. “They say he’s been shot.”
What’s his name?
“Daniel Smothers. He’s a football player. About 6-foot-2?”
No, ma’am. He’s not here. Sorry.
Next hospital. Saginaw General. Same questions. Same routine.
“My son. He’s been shot.”
Name?
“Daniel Smothers.”
Nobody by that name here.
Next hospital. Same questions.
“Daniel Smothers?”
We don’t show a Smothers . . .
Saginaw’s first homicide of 1999 began with a search for the body; it was conducted by the victim’s mother. Debry Davis had waited in her small house on Robinwood for the police to verify what everyone was whispering. That her only son, her beloved Daniel, the honors student, the football star, the kid who had a college scholarship waiting just nine months down the calendar, had been shot at a New Year’s Night party.
And he might be dead.
