LOU GRAB: LUIS RIVERA JR.

Words and images by Akintola Hanif

Luis Rivera Jr. was a great friend to me and one of the stars of my still unedited documentary, The Bity (the projects my NJ family is from that I frequented as a child). Louie (as he was more affectionately known) was one of the first strangers I met that welcomed me into their personal lives almost as if he knew and understood my purpose before I did. Before that, most of my subjects were family and friends. But from the day we met, Louie was extremely open and willing to allow me into his world.

I remember the first time I saw him, it was Summer 2003. He approached me like we had already met. He walked up to my truck like, “ What up, you working on a documentary? Put me in it. What you want me to do?” He was 18 at the time and as one of the only Puerto Rican dudes in the whole projects, with braids that hung down past his shoulders and a tattoo on the side of his neck that said – Y.O.L.O: You only live once. He stood out.

Louie was in the hood and had a lil’ record for stealing cars but he was really just a thrill seeker. One day I asked him why he stole cars and he said it was “for the adrenaline rush, for the same reason that white boys go skiing and like to jump of cliffs.” He just liked joyriding. “He also liked to fix cars. You know he was a lil’ mechanic on the low," his sister Jessica told me.

“Even the cops loved him. They’d see him and say ‘what you doing Louie,''' remembers Jessica. "He’d smile and say. ‘I ain’t doing nothing.’ They’d just laugh & leave him alone but they knew he was stealing cars.''

“We used to stay together but we never did anything sexual, we would just watch movies, joke and laugh but he would always hold me,” says his ex girlfriend Tamika. “He had a way with girls. He would date like three at a time and they usually knew each other but didn’t care.” His daughter's mother Niesha follows up with, “His son’s mother use to be my best friend. After we found out we were both pregnant, he got both of us together and said ‘I don’t know what y'all wanna do but I want both of my babies'. I think if he was still alive he’d try to be with both of us.’’

Louie wanted to move to Atlanta, finish school, get his life together and make his mother proud. He also said he wanted to move his Mom and the rest of his family out of Jersey and was extremely apologetic for all the trouble he had caused them.

Louie was killed in a random shooting outside his house while I was working on my first short film, Freedom or Everybody Dies. I remember seeing him coming out of the hospital that afternoon. He had just had his second child, Destiny.

“It was about 12am and we were all sitting on the porch, there was this boy named Naim, we were messing with him telling him to walk the yellow line in the street and we’d buy him a cigarette,'' remembers Jessica. “Then a stolen car came swerving down the block, like 'get the fuck out the street!' So Naim says 'What you gonna do about it? Do something about it!” The car stops, the driver and two passengers get out, the driver shoots Naim and then they all start shooting at the porch. We all ran into the house but we all got shot. When we got upstairs that’s when we realized Louie was missing. He only made it halfway up.”

I will forever honor Louie’s humble spirit because his life handed me my life’s mission: to help the young find a better way and to show the of rest world how beautiful and diverse the people they overlook really are. Even though he wore the colors and threw up the signs, Louie wasn’t an official gang member. That’s just what kids that grow up around gang culture do. Louie was just a teenager trying to find his way, killed before he got a chance to turn his life around like he wanted to. I remember Louie telling me that even though he was caught up, his heart and intentions were all love and good. Luis Rivera Jr., Rest in Power, King. I love you boy.