Wardell Smith, 17

Wardell Smith was fatally shot March 3 on a side street near South Dakota Avenue NE.Family members say it might have been the result of a neighborhood feud. Police have made no arrest. These are the things Wardell, 17 left behind:

Family members say it might have been the result of a neighborhood feud. Police have made no arrest. These are things Wardell, 17 left behind:

His impression of Carlton, the uptight cousin from the TV show “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”Wardell’s nephew can crack up the family with an exact imitation of Carlton’s dorky dance. He learned from watching Wardell.

The story about the time when Wardell – a confirmed cutup and clown – jumped on the catwalk during a high school fashion show. He playfully strutted, wearing the clothes he came in. ” He said he wanted to get his money’s worth ,” says his mother, Mary Smith. That story still makes her laugh.

The well-tended grass and the flower beds in Mr. Richardson’s and Ms. Robinson’s yards, near his grandfather’s place on Vista Street NE. Wardell planted them. He was a junior at Eastern High School and had told his mother that he wanted to study agriculture in college. ” He said someday he’d want to own his own farm,”she says.

A 6 month – old boy named Devonte Walton, whose mother Chiquita Walton, 16 was Wardell’s girlfriend. People thought the child might have turned Wardell’s life around, noting how he doted on Chiquitra while she was pregnant, and how he would take early morning bus rides so he could see mother and son before she left for school.

The baby, now 28 pounds, has his father’s eyes, mouth and appetite – he eats everything in sight. His mother says the baby remembers his father, gone now for two months. He sometimes starts crying for “Dada”. Chiquita says she tries to make sure Devonte doesn’t forget. She takes out Wardell’s picture and shows him. “I say, ‘This Dada,’”she says.

David A. Fahrenthold

May 16, 2004

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Sunday, April 13th, 2008, 2:48 pm. Filed under Wardell Smith, home.