Pine Bluff woman recounts life of her slain 16-year-old son

“Kendall was not that kid.”

And so starts an interview with the mother of a 16-year-old boy who was shot dead on the streets of Pine Bluff.

The city has had more than its share of deadly youth violence. In the summer of 2023, eight youngsters under the age of 18 were killed. On Jan. 12, 2024, another young man was killed in a drive-by shooting. That young man was Kendall Burton, and his mother, Shaketa Simmons, believes his death was the result of mistaken identity.

“Kendall was respectful and well-liked,” Simmons said. “He played sports, football, basketball and track. He played AAU and was constantly on the go. He was good at it. Everybody loved him, his classmates and teachers. He was a ‘coach’s son.’ Anything Kendall needed, whether it was being picked up or dropped off, whatever, the coach was there.”

Simmons said the violence happened quickly. Kendall, who had only been 16 for six days, had gone to his grandmother’s house on the east side of Pine Bluff to pick up his older brother. The two hadn’t gone far when the brother said he needed to go back, so Kendall returned to the house and dropped him off. Kendall then drove away but didn’t get more than two blocks.

“His brother called me, and is yelling into the phone, ‘They’re shooting, they’re shooting at Kendall,'” Simmons said, adding that she grabbed her daughter and the two frantically hurried to the scene.

“He was running down there, and I can hear him say, ‘Mama, Mama,'” she said. “I was yelling, ‘Is he OK? Is he OK?’ Then there was another guy on the phone, and he said ‘He’s dead, he’s gone.'”

Because his brother had been in trouble and Kendall had not, the family came to the conclusion that the attackers intended to shoot the brother, Simmons said.

“It was at a stop sign and they started shooting from the passenger side,” she said. “I believe they thought the other son was in the car. He was just 24 in February.”

Up until that point, Simmons said her family had succeeded in keeping Kendall away from gangs and violence.

“We were trying to get him out of that toxic situation,” she said. “It’s definitely a tragedy. Kendall was not involved in those things. He had been in no trouble. So it was pretty hard.”

Kendall had not had an easy life. In 2016, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that develops in the lymph system. His treatment included four rounds of chemotherapy and 14 days of radiation.

Before he started treatment, Simmons said, Kendall was hesitant.

“He said, ‘I know I’m a child of God, and he’s got me. I just don’t want to be sick in the bed like the kids I see on TV.’ And you know, he never got sick, not once.”

In October 2023, Kendall reached the seven-year milestone of being cancer-free, Simmons said.

“He was an official cancer survivor,” she said. “He went through so much. But this little boy beat cancer.”

The treatment, she said, caused him to develop a heart problem, although the condition was been treated by medication and did not limit what he could do.

“He was like my happy child,” she said.

Because Kendall was so upbeat about life and unconquerable, Simmons has tried to remain that way.

“If there’s one thing I know, it’s that he loved his mama,” she said. “He would not want me to sit around being mad and crying and being sad. That hasn’t been easy. The experience of his death, seeing him lying on the ground. But I take some joy in knowing the joy he would still be having if he was still here today.”

Those around Simmons have helped her remain in a better place than she might otherwise find herself. Kendall was in the 10th grade, and many of his classmates and parents of classmates routinely tell her the impact her son had on them.

“I’ve gotten a lot of accolades,” she said. “People tell me how Kendall encouraged their child in the right way. A surgeon even donated $10,000 to the school in his honor, creating the Kendall Burton Foundation. That was amazing to me, people telling me what he meant to them. That took the anger out of me that was there in the beginning. Now his life is really a shining example. I have nothing but good spirits now.”

Even after Kendall was gone, his coaches would come to Simmons with letters from colleges inviting him to visit their campuses.

No arrests have been made in Kendall’s death, and Simmons said that still stings.

“It’s been over a year now,” she said. “I call and talk to the detectives and they’ll say the case is at a standstill. Four boys were identified, all in a gang, but police say there’s not enough evidence to make an arrest. I gave them as much information as I possibly could. But when I call they’ll talk about shell casings and getting information from Kendall’s phone. It’s very frustrating.”

Now that the pain of losing Kendall has subsided somewhat, Simmons said she is ready to try to make a difference in other people’s lives.

“I went to a candlelight vigil,” she said. “I’m really trying to step up, mostly just wanting to meet other parents and tell them that grief doesn’t have to hurt. I’m going out in public places and helping where I can.”

That help could include a service of sorts she could provide to the city’s Group Violence Intervention program. (See related story.) At a recent training session that attracted many of the GVI stakeholders, one session included the importance of having different voices from the community speaking to at-risk juveniles. Simmons would, in that setting, be what is called a “voice of pain” – someone who has lost someone dear to them through violence.

The idea of providing that voice, she said, takes her back to something a friend said. He had researched crime in Pine Bluff and came to a conclusion that GVI also reached.

“‘It’s gonna take the mothers to step up to the plate,’ he told me. ‘They need to talk to their children. Those children will accept the information from their mothers more than from anyone from the street.’ When he said that, I thought, some of my children have been nothing but trouble since they were 15. But they weren’t raised in that environment, and that’s the challenge. You’ve got to get to them early.”

Working with GVI Director Kevin Crumpton would also be somewhat of a homecoming, she said. Before Crumpton took the lead at GVI, he was working with youth in other capacities.

“He knew some of my kids were always in juvenile court,” she said. “But they would listen to him. He’s hard but he’s fair. ‘If you’re wrong, you gotta pay for your wrong,’ he would say. ‘But I want to help you make it right.'”

Consequently, helping GVI with one of its missions, that being to eradicate violent crime at the juvenile level, is something Simmons said she would be interested in doing.

“That’s one of my goals, to be able to tell others my son’s story,” Simmons said. “I’ll say Kendall’s story and then I’ll tell my story with it. The community needs people to out and speak and tell about their children that have been murdered. Gang violence has just gotten crazy; kids are younger and younger – 14 and 15 years old. I need to be able to speak to those teens in the community. I don’t know, but I’m trying to figure out God’s plan and what to do to be an advocate. I’m trying to find my way.”

The need to speak to others also includes heartfelt conversations she’s had with her 24-year-old son.

“He knows he was the cause,” Simmons said matter-of-factly. “Just recently he spoke to me about it for the first time and said he would like to go to therapy. I tell him, ‘You’ve got sons. Do you want your sons to follow in your footsteps? Do you want to bury your sons? And what about your nieces and nephews?’ Young people need to enjoy the world, not worry about being killed.”