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in MIAMI-DADE County : Number of violent teen deaths soars

A week ago today, Volny Eugene, 16, became yet another teenager gunned down in Miami-Dade County this year.

Inside the casket was Volny Eugene, six feet tall, 270 pounds, dressed in a tan suit.

Though he has the husky frame of a grown man, his birth date was Aug. 2, 1990.

Volny was 16 years old when he died violently. To his family and friends who mourned him at a Liberty City funeral home on Friday night, he was a smiling, passive giant.

At the medical examiner's office, he became the third teenager to lose his life to bullets in seven days.

''Volny! Wake up. That's not you in there,'' wailed Tara Gedeus, who turned 17 the day her friend died at the hospital.

Volny died about a week ago after somebody peppered him with bullets and left him dying on a Little River street. He succumbed at the hospital, while his sister was clasping his hand.

On Dec. 24, Volny became another in a long list of young people shot dead this year in Miami-Dade County.

On Dec. 17, Rachel Louis, 17, was gunned down in North Miami Beach by someone in a passing car as she sat in her boyfriend's car. She apparently was not the target, police say.

Three days later, 16-year-old Myckenley ''Mike'' Barjon was killed in another drive-by in Miami Gardens.

Detectives are investigating all three murders.

VIOLENT TEEN DEATHS

Volny is the 31st person 18 or younger killed violently in Miami-Dade over the past year and a half. That figure doesn't include domestic homicides.

To mourners at Carey Royal Ram'n Mortuary on Friday, his death felt unreal.

''He was real passive. I never saw him get mad at anybody,'' said Dell Hadley, his guidance counselor at Troy Academy.

'When they told me, I thought, `Not Volny. Not Volny. Not Volny with the nicest, biggest, brightest smile,' '' said Tara, his friend.

Why Volny was murdered and the identity of his killers remained unclear.

His family suspects he had fallen in with the wrong crowd. Volny also had problems in school. This year, he had been sent for about a month to Troy Academy, an alternative outreach school for troubled teens.

He had played defensive line at Edison High, but was suspended from the team because he often disappeared.

''He was a physically strong kid. Just naturally strong. He had all the tools to be a great defensive lineman,'' said Edison coach Corey Bell. ``But the streets kept calling.''

Volny lived with his father in a tiny apartment in Little Haiti. He had always told his father he would ''lift him from poverty'' by becoming a pro football player.

The teen frequently hung around his grandfather's home a little more than a mile north.

''He was a sweet boy with me,'' said Wesma Eugene, a cab driver who often warned his son about his friends.

He said of them: ``I didn't like them. I didn't like their style of life. I always told him not to hang out with those people.''

Said Coach Bell: ``We tried so many so times. We spoke to his mom about making sure he got to the weight room. And she would follow up for him to make sure he got back on the field. But he would disappear.''

Some of his friends have met violent ends. Volny had recently attended the funeral of James Joseph, 19, who was gunned down earlier this month.

MET FRIEND'S FATE

On the day before Christmas, Volny met the same fate. About 5:30 p.m., Volny called his father and asked to borrow $20. He told his father he would be over soon to pick up the money.

Volny never showed up.

He later was found gravely wounded. He was taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial, where he died the next day.

His father believes Volny's friends had offered him a ride. But he doesn't know why or how he ended up shot on Northwest 84th Street near Second Avenue.

Anyone with information on his death can call the Miami-Dade homicide bureau at 305-471-2400 or Miami-Dade CrimeStoppers at 305-471-TIPS.