By Andrea May Sahouri, Des Moines Register
Jessica Fernandez scoffed at the word “justice.”
For her son, who was shot and killed last month, “there is no justice,” she said.
Not when the man who shot him is still on the streets.
Fernandez-Smith, 15, was fatally shot during an alleged robbery in Des Moines on Nov. 7, 2021. His family seeks justice.
“Do I believe we’re going to have justice the way our court system is? Hell no,” Fernandez told the Des Moines Register.
Police said that on the morning of Nov. 7, Isaiah Fernandez-Smith, 15, and another 15-year-old attempted to rob a 21-year-old man while armed with a gun and a knife near Evelyn K. Davis Park. Police said the alleged robbery was drug-related.
The man shot Fernandez-Smith, who died two days later. The man has not been charged in the killing, although police said the investigation is ongoing.
Fernandez said police do not have the full story. She went door-to-door near where her son was shot, asking to see if anyone had captured video of the incident. What she saw, she alleged, was her son running away from a vehicle.
In an email to the Register, police officials alleged Fernandez-Smith, while fleeing the robbery, had fired a stolen handgun at the vehicle where the robbery took place. Police said he allegedly continued to run when he was shot by the 21-year-old.
Fernandez’s son is not the criminal some are trying to paint him as, she said. The teen was just starting to grow a mustache — he was becoming a man, she said. He had a big heart, he worked hard, and he always cared for and wanted to help others.
“Everyone involved (in the alleged robbery) was making bad choices,” Fernandez, 36, said. “Why are only the Black kids being punished?”
The 21-year-old, based on court documents and photos on his Facebook page, appears to be white. (The Register is not publishing his name because he has not been charged.) Polk County Attorney John Sarcone has requested in court documents the other 15-year-old involved in the alleged robbery, who is Black, be charged with first-degree robbery as an adult. The teen has since admitted to the crime in juvenile court.
Fernandez and her family have launched a campaign for community members to call and email both the Des Moines Police Department and Sarcone’s office demanding charges be pressed against the 21-year-old.
“All (people) see is another 15-year-old boy who wanted to fit in, who wanted to feel valuable, who wanted to feel worthy and followed a crowd and got in trouble. That’s all they’ll see,” said Fernandez’s sister, Christina Fernandez-Morrow, 42.
The 21-year-old declined to comment through his attorney, Sean Spellman, citing the ongoing investigation. Spellman said he and his client are fully cooperating with police.
In response to Fernandez-Smith’s family’s concerns, Sgt. Paul Parizek, a spokesperson for the Des Moines Police Department, said police have “shared the facts of this case, as well as our concerns over the number of violent incidents involving our community’s youth.
“This investigation is far from over. It is not being fast-tracked or slowed down due to the race of anyone involved. Analyzing evidence, facts and preparing the investigative product is time-consuming due to the absolute necessity of accuracy and completeness.”
Parizek added that the department would not publicly indicate whether they plan to press charges against the man to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
Mother: ‘He didn’t feel safe in Des Moines’
In the days leading up to Fernandez-Smith’s killing, his mother kept waking up in the middle of the night, sweating.
“I knew I had to get him out of here, and I had to get him out of here — now. I didn’t move fast enough,” Fernandez said.
“He told everyone he knew he didn’t feel safe in Des Moines,” she continued. So much so that they had planned to move Fernandez-Smith in with family in Illinois just three days after he was killed.
Injuries from gun violence, which do not include fatal injuries, spiked in Des Moines this year. At least 70 people were injured by gunfire by late October, compared to 49 in all of 2020, according to data obtained by the Register.
And in recent years, many of those killed by gun violence have been teenagers.
State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, founder of Creative Visions, a local nonprofit that tries to combat gang violence, drug use and crime, said the organization is trying to reach kids ages 10 through 13 who may have gotten involved with firearms.
Before, those involved were typically 16 or 17, he said.
Des Moines was supposed to be a place Fernandez-Smith could live safely, his mother said.
“I came from Chicago. I wouldn’t be alive if my parents didn’t move me here. This was my paradise; this was my peace — this was where my kids were supposed to be able to play outside at the park; they were supposed to be able to go to school,” Fernandez said.
“My peace became Isaiah’s hell.”
Family remembers Isaiah Fernandez-Smith: ‘He made mistakes’ but was growing into a good man
Two days before Thanksgiving, Fernandez and Fernandez-Morrow met with a Register reporter and spoke of their favorite things about their loved one.
Fernandez-Smith was the type of kid who would donate his toys to other children and loved to volunteer at church during the holidays, they said. He’d tease his little cousins because he loved to make them smile and laugh, and he always made time for phone calls with his grandparents. He’d always say “I love you Ti Ti,” to his aunt, Fernandez-Morrow.
Fernandez-Smith was curious and could talk to anyone. When his friends didn’t have lunch at school or were upset, Fernandez-Smith was there for them. And he was protective of his loved ones — when his little brother, Junior, had online school at the beginning of the pandemic, Fernandez-Smith made sure he was paying attention and asked his teachers questions about his progress, his mother said.
And his family shared stories of Fernandez-Smith.
Like the time his aunt, Fernandez-Morrow, gave him a ride to work at Dunkin Donuts last year. She’d asked her nephew what he liked about his job. At first, he said nothing, Fernandez-Morrow said. But as they were pulling into the parking lot, two houseless men nodded at Fernandez-Smith and he nodded back.
“He said his favorite part of the job was at the end of the night — when he’d put out the trash, he would take the extra coffee and donuts that would otherwise be thrown away and he would set it out for them,” Fernandez-Morrow said. “He had a signal that he would give them because he wasn’t supposed to do that.”
His mother, in tears, told a story of Fernandez-Smith when he was about four or five years old.
Fernandez had been crying because she was struggling with her bills. Fernandez-Smith, who’d heard his mother’s tears, brought her his Monopoly money to help.
“He made me smile. We just hugged. I kept crying, but you know, I felt like he was such a little man back then, too. … For a long time, it was just me and Isaiah. He was my right-hand man,” she aid.
Fernandez said she knows her son is dead, but she still doesn’t want to believe it.
“He made mistakes, but for the most part, I really believe I shaped a good young man. I would tell him, ‘Baby, you’re going to be okay. You just have to make it out of these teenage years and you’re going to be great’,” she said.
“I ran out of time.”
Andrea Sahouri covers social justice for the Des Moines Register. She can be contacted at [email protected], on Twitter @andreamsahouri, or by phone 515-284-8247.
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