Camarin Wallace often hung out and played near the playground in Annapolis Gardens. It’s a spot he made silly videos with friends or grouped up to play basketball. On the evening of July 27, the 14-year-old was shot and killed there.
Nearly 100 friends and family gathered on a warm August afternoon Wednesday at Lasting Tributes funeral home off Bestgate Road and then buried Camarin in a cemetery plot by a big oak tree. He is the youngest homicide victim in Annapolis’ history.
Camarin was known as “Peeboo,” a nickname short for Peekaboo. He got the name before birth because his eyes were closed during one of his mother’s sonograms. Camarin loved to ride bikes around town. He loved playing the video game Fortnite until early morning hours. He loved being around his friends, whom he made easily.
Nearly everyone in attendance Wednesday wore a white shirt with pictures of Camarin on the front. Several people wore face masks emblazoned with photos of him on each side. The teenager recently went through a growth spurt and got his braces off, making his wide smile even brighter.
“When I got to the counter it broke me. I knew it was real. He was being put on a shirt,” said neighbor Tershia Lemon, the mother of Camarin’s friend Shyasia Johnson. “In 14 years he had an impact. Imagine if he lived a longer life.”
Friends and family described Camarin as a charming kid who was full of life. Every word out of his mouth would make you laugh, they said. His company was the kind you rejoiced in.
“You always laugh with him,” said Trenton Cully, a cousin who spent long summer days riding bikes with Camarin when he lived in Annapolis Gardens.
Not a day passes that someone is not paying their respects at a balloon memorial built near the playground on Bowman Court where Camarin was killed, Lemon said. He died from his injuries at a local hospital.
Police have yet to make an arrest.
Residents of Annapolis Gardens and its neighboring communities said they are gripped by grief over Camarin’s death and terrified by the spate of shootings in late July. Parents say they live in fear for their children who just want to play outside in the summer.
Hours after police and politicians held a news conference following Camarin’s death, a 17-year-old boy was shot in the leg in the same neighborhood. Three people were shot at a gas station on Forest Drive the day before Camarin was killed.
Annapolis police arrested an 18-year-old man and charged him with the triple shooting Tuesday.
“(Camarin) was a local celebrity, imagine what he could have been, what the city was cheated of,” said Cherdi Henson, a Robinwood resident whose niece was friends with Camarin. “Something like this should never happen.”
Camarin was the youngest of 10 siblings and spent his days playing basketball and football or rooting for the Patriots.
Camarin dreamed of playing in the NFL, said Jaden Johnson, 15, a friend from football. Johnson went to a different middle school than Camarin, but the pair would be starting at Annapolis High this year together.
Camarin will never see the halls of high school.
Groups of teenagers hugged and consoled one another at the funeral home Wednesday. Some held their head in their hands; others broke into tears.
Seven pallbearers, six in white T-Shirts, loaded a pale blue and silver casket into a hearse to be driven to the bottom of the hill. A river of white shirts followed on foot.
“Nobody should have to live like this,” Lemon said. “Nobody should have to bury a 14-year-old in a casket like this because someone took his life.”
“It’s not fair.”
