‘He was really destined to be great’: Friends open up about Raleigh 18-year-old’s slaying

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Many questions remain after an 18-year-old with a bright future and big dreams was gunned down outside his home late Friday night.

Friends say Desmond Jenkins was a basketball legend at Sanderson High School. He had been recruited to play ball at a nearby college. His closest friends are still stunned and are trying to figure out why someone would want to kill their friend.

Jenkins was well known for his passion: basketball.

“He was really destined to be great,” said Joseph Green. “I decided I wasn’t even gonna play basketball no more, and he was like ‘It’s good. You don’t even got to play no more. I’m gonna make it, and we’re all gonna live in Cali.’ He literally just told me that about basketball. I’m gonna make it.”

“When I see number two, I’m gonna always think of Des,” said friend Javon Prim. “I’m always gonna think of how he made me laugh, the good moments.”

Prim grew up with Jenkins. They had been friends for 13 years.

“About 10:30 every morning, he used to call me. ‘What are we gonna do today, Javon?’ I’m gonna go to work, and every day after work, I’d come to his house. And if I was off, I’d spend the whole day with him so I just find myself waiting for that call,” said Prim.

On Friday night, Prim dropped Jenkins off outside his apartment building on Prince George Lane. Just hours later, he got the news that his friend had been shot right outside his home.

“I put my clothes on ran outside,” said Prim. “It was fear running through me. Everything was running through me, but only thing running through me right now is I feel empty. I feel lonely. I feel like I don’t have my best friend no more.”

Paramedics took the teen to WakeMed, but he didn’t make it. Friends said Jenkins was focused on his basketball career. They said he was set to start at Granville-Vance Community College in a week and there’s no way he’d get involved in anything that could jeopardize that, but his friends still think his death was too targeted to be a random act.

“I mean, I don’t know, maybe something he didn’t tell us,” said Jalen Aris. “We’re all just mind blown by it we’re still trying to figure all of it out.”

“That’s what’s really eating all of us up because he’s really the most innocent one of all of us,” said Green.