<\/a>
\nJasiri Lacey shares a few words about his brother Rickquese McCoy, who was killed in a June 30 shooting. Residents on 44th Street honored McCoy with a tree-planting ceremony earlier this month. | Photo Credit: Dennis Wood<\/span><\/p>\n

By Megan Burks<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a> \nRicky McCoy Jr. spreads his son’s ashes in the planting bed for the memorial tree. | Photo Credit: Dennis Wood<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n When Rickquese McCoy was young, Swan Canyon behind his house was off-limits. It was overgrown and pitch-black at night, making it the perfect venue for illegal activity<\/a> \u2014 or, if you were a kid, just enough rebellion to put your parents on edge.<\/p>\n McCoy’s grandmother Patricia said he often ignored her warnings about the chasm of land that runs parallel with Highland Avenue in City Heights. He went back there all the time.<\/p>\n Now that canyon is the final resting place for McCoy, who was gunned down June 30 in a random shooting on 44th Street<\/a> that also left 34-year-old Stephen McClendon dead and another seriously injured.<\/p>\n Friends and family spread McCoy’s ashes earlier this month at the base of a toyon tree planted for him by the Ocean Discovery Institute’s Watershed Avengers<\/a>. The group beautifies and clears debris from urban canyons that lead to the bay and ocean.<\/p>\n “We had a lot of good little memories together, especially coming up in this canyon and trying to be sneaky as little kids,” said McCoy’s sister, Kayla Hodges, 18. “This is a spot you guys can all come to, vent to him, talk to him just like he’s still here. His spirit is right here on the block.”<\/p>\n <\/a> \nRickquese McCoy’s sister Kayla Hodges shares memories of her childhood with McCoy. | Photo Credit: Dennis Wood<\/span><\/p>\n Residents on the block have been honoring McCoy by coming together to seek solutions to increased violence in City Heights<\/a>. They lacked a formal place to remember him until now.<\/p>\n <\/a> \nRickquese McCoy’s family and friends gather around the tree in Swan Canyon. | Photo Credit: Dennis Wood<\/span><\/p>\n  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jasiri Lacey shares a few words about his brother Rickquese McCoy, who was killed in a June 30 shooting. Residents on 44th Street honored McCoy with a tree-planting ceremony earlier this month. | Photo Credit: Dennis Wood By Megan Burks Ricky McCoy Jr. spreads his son’s ashes in the planting bed for the memorial tree. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,264],"tags":[1144,198,1143,382,2103,250,1149],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-public-safety","tag-44th-street","tag-canyons","tag-healing-44th-street","tag-ocean-discovery-institute","tag-public-safety","tag-swan-canyon","tag-watershed-avengers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n