Upset by the 1995 stabbing death of his grandmother, Kennedy planned to be a lawyer to help crime victims, said his mother, Marshelle Kennedy-Coleman of Price Hill.

Mark Whiteacre, owner of a building on Glenway Ave. in West Price Hill, puts up a sign in memory of Maurice Kennedy. (Enquirer photo/GARY LANDERS)

Instead, the 17-year-old Elder High School senior was fatally shot in the head Sunday night during an argument with others about 7:40 across the street from the high school.

Moments before the shooting, he had been eating a taco, laughing and joking as he walked along Glenway Avenue with two friends and his girlfriend.

"He was a peacemaker. He was trying to stop an argument between a group of guys that were on one side of the street and his girlfriend and two of his friends," Kennedy-Coleman, 35, said. "He didn't like violence. He didn't like arguing. He always thought he could talk a problem out."

Police said Kennedy's death stemmed from an ongoing dispute among teens. Detectives continued to investigate the city's 55th slaying and had not arrested anyone Monday.

Violence and peer pressure in his neighborhood concerned his family. The family planned to move next month to Sacramento, Calif., to get Maurice, his four siblings and his two cousins out of the troubled neighborhood, his family said.

"We've been here eight years and this is the worst I've seen it with the kids and the guns and the fighting, just mayhem," said Maurice's stepfather, Marty Coleman. "He had some problems with some other kids. It was a peer pressure situation. That was the purpose of us trying to move."

A kid going someplace

Elder High School Principal Tom Otten said he was shaken by the shooting, saying he could not recall anything similar in his 44 years as student, teacher and administrator at the private Catholic boys school.

"It's a big surprise. The little bit that we know it sounds like Maurice was a good man in the wrong spot," Otten said. "It sounds like he was trying to be the peacemaker and it didn't work out.

"He was very friendly, very outgoing. Basically he was a kid that was going someplace. He had a lot going on, attending school full-time, holding down a part-time job, trying to make a success of himself."

Maurice attended Elder since his freshman year. Before that he attended Resurrection School, a K-8 Catholic school affiliated with Resurrection Church in Price Hill.

Thomas Miller of Silverton, who retired in 2003 as Resurrection's principal, helped Maurice and his family get settled in the area and in school.

"He was like my own child. He would never shake hands. He hugged me. That was his way of saying 'thank you' to me for all I had done for them,'' Miller said.

Maurice worked part-time after school at McDonald's on Warsaw Avenue.

Before he had a steady job, though, he shoveled snow before Christmas about three years ago to help pay for gifts. And on Mother's Day this year, he gave his mother a new dress and matching hat, sunglasses, perfume and a teddy bear, she said.

"He had a sharing heart, a beautiful smile," Kennedy-Coleman said. "He was a loving, smart kid who never got into trouble."

Maurice's mother said her son attended the school partly on financial aid and scholarships.

Maurice was mentored by many in the church, his mother said. A priest at Resurrection Church in Price Hill and a former principal at that school inspired him to stay in school, work hard and earn good grades, his mother said. She also scraped together some of the $6,300 tuition because she wanted her son to have a better life.

"I wanted him to be in a Christian school," she said. "I wanted him to get a very good education and reach his full potential. And he wanted to go and was eager to go."

Some of Maurice's Elder classmates stopped by Otten's office Monday and discussed possibly sponsoring fund-raisers later this week at the school to help the family. Maurice's friends also opened a memorial account for the family Monday at Fifth Third Bank.

"His family does not have the wherewithal to get through this whole thing, so anything we can do to help them, we are going to do," the principal said.

'I am numb from crying'

The fatal shooting shook some who live and work in the neighborhood around the school, particularly those who live along Iliff Avenue where Maurice was raised.

"I am just devastated," said Sandra Abbott, 35. "I am numb from crying right now. My heart just breaks so bad. He's like one of my own.

"You expect so many kids to be in gangs and stuff, but he wasn't. He had such respect for his mother that he would do anything for his mom and all the children."

Joyce Corey heard the shooting outside her kitchen window.

"I am not going to move immediately, but it has me thinking about it again. I thought about it before the shooting," said Corey, 59. "This isn't a good location for my kids to get out and ride and play and ride their bicycles."

Abbott was especially upset Monday because of the family's upcoming move.

"They were going to get their children out of here," Abbott said. "Maurice was (his mother's) hopes and dreams and she kept saying today she lost her heart. And what's sad is she has to bury her son here."

The family still plans to move in late October, Coleman said.

"We are on our way out of here,'' he said. "Maurice will be with us in spirit."

Memorial account

Friends of Maurice Kennedy established a memorial account Monday for his family at Fifth Third Bank. Those wishing to make donations to "The Maurice Kennedy Memorial" can go to any Fifth Third in eight states including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Florida and Tennessee, and make a deposit after mentioning that account. For details, call the bank's main customer service line: (513) 579-5300.

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E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com