Carver High School mourning the loss of 17-year-old Dwaine Thomas

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Birmingham City Schools are mourning the loss of yet another student whose life was taken by gun violence.

17-year-old Dwaine Thomas was a student at Carver High School and was just a few weeks away from graduation.

Now police are looking for his killer.

Students, teachers and staff are heartbroken over his loss, another teen whose life was snuffed out too soon.

Carver High School Principal, Tikki Hines, struggles to find the words to express the grieve she feels at the loss of another one of her students.

“It’s just a weird time of the year for it to be taking place. It’s just a time where we’re ending school, and final exams, and graduation, and the pomp and circumstance, and so… I’m just at a lost of words that we’re in this situation. We just hate that, you know, his life ended. We felt like he had promise,” Hines said.

Sadly, this is the second time this year Carver High School is mourning the loss of one of its own.

17-year-old, Javarius Reid, was shot and killed back in January, and on Monday, 17-year-old Dwaine Thomas, affectionately known as “Man Man” was also gunned down.

He’s the ninth teen killed this year in Birmingham.

Police said a fight broke out between Dwaine and another young man in 1200 block of Tuscaloosa Avenue SW.

Witnesses said Dwaine was winning the fight when the suspect pulled out a gun and shot him.

“Dwaine had aspirations of becoming a construction worker, and we always had a running joke, once you get your certification, I want you to build my mansion on top of a hill. He was just an all-around leader. Dwaine could come in the classroom and shift the atmosphere,” said Teacher, Darius Davenport.

Teachers and school administrators said Dwaine was a good kid who stayed out of trouble and adored his family.

He participated in ROTC and was a member of the baseball team.

“I want Man Man…I want Dwaine to be remembered as a real, solid human being, a tough, gritty, no-nonsense type of guy, but even more so, for me as a baseball coach, a guy that I knew every time that I put him on the field, he was giving me his all. He was definitely on the path of greatness, and I just want everybody to understand that my guy was as solid as they come,” said Coach Christian Watts.

Police said there were witnesses recording the fight on their cell phones, but an officer responding to a separate call found Dwaine between two cars suffering from a gunshot wound.

Birmingham Police said they are questioning a person of interest in this shooting.

Anyone with information can make anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers at (205) 254-7777.

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