FLINT, MI — A lone speaker at center court plays music as cars role up at Gundry Park on Flint’s north side.
The beat is bumping. The voice fills the air as a rapper sings about his life experience.
Song after song as friends and family roll up by the dozen, some nodding along and others singing.
The voice coming from the speakers that beaconed more than 100 family and friends to the court on Thursday, June 16 was that of the late Jacari “Cari” Roberts.
One year ago to the day, the 21-year-old man was killed in a shooting outside Hunters Ridge Apartments in Flint Township.
“It’s been a year. It seems like it was just yesterday. I really don’t have any words and wake up every morning trying to find them,” said his mother Casey Burnette. “Me, my family, it’s hard to move on. We have to live with this loss every single day, and it’s hard.
“We’re going to do all we can to keep his memory alive. You know, he was a people person, and anything I can do through community work to keep his memory alive, I will. If it’s the last thing I do, I will make sure his life continues to have meaning right here in Flint.”
Part of those efforts in the nonprofit JLR Foundation Burnette started in her son’s memory and dedicated to service to the community.
The foundation’s first event, a backpack giveaway for Flint-area youth, was a success last year.
Burnette wore a custom white T-shirt that read “Cari 4 Lyfe” on the front and “A Legend” on the back. She wore it proudly as she danced to the songs he produced while the sun set.
Everyone knows Cari’s mother, and as such, she received embrace after embrace, but she was also quick to say that this was a celebration, not a vigil.
Burnette brought everyone together to show the impact Cari still has on so many.
“He was a rapper. His personality, he lit up a room. He entered just as who he was, and people would just gravitate to him. He’d give the shirt off of his back if he thought it could help you. He was just a laid-back person who always had a smile on his face,” Burnette said. “Calling him energetic was an understatement. He was a fearless, spontaneous individual. His passport looked better than mine, traveling to Jamaica, Mexico and Africa. I always told him you only get one life, so just live it. And he definitely did.
“Whatever he set his mind to, he accomplished. He was a phenomenal rapper overnight. He was on his way out of Flint, he wasn’t even supposed to be here when it happened.”
On that fated day in June 2021, officers were dispatched to the apartment complex off Ridgecliffe Drive. Police found Roberts had been shot while outside of an apartment building.
Roberts was transported to a local hospital and later pronounced deceased.
RELATED: Police ID Flint man killed in Flint Township shooting
Ziare Thomas is charged with one count of open murder, two counts of felon in possession of a weapon/ammunition and three counts of felony firearm in connection with shooting death.
Thomas’ case is currently pending in Genesee County Circuit Court.
A 2018 Carman-Ainsworth graduate, Roberts was a beast of an athlete, said Channing Pearson, a friend and classmate.
The two first met playing flag football during the CANUSA Games in 2009, and Pearson still remembers seeing the only other fourth-grader with size 12 or 13 shoes.
He knew they’d instantly connect and they did on the football field, basketball court, as well as inviting each other over for barbecues.
Their birthdays were only two weeks apart, and the two would be sure to celebrate one another.
Cari was one of Channing’s closest friends — so close he joked that they argued like brothers, even over trying on shoes together or inspiring each other’s fits on nights out while sharing a passion for shoes and music.
Some of Pearson’s fondest memories though were of Cari on the basketball court.
Whether an AAU game or pick-up game on a court around the city, he always knew Cari’s strength and competitive spirit was hard to match for any player.
“He was just a high motor dude. When he got the ball, you didn’t know what he was going to do with it. He might turn it over, but he’d be going full speed every time,” Pearson said. “He was a big, strong dude. He was built, very muscular. Spin moves, really out of control. He would always do his thing. Cari on the court, back and forth on the court the whole time. He never let up.”
Burnette added that Cari was most passionate about football, where he played as a running back. She said he could do both with his eyes closed, that’s just how good he was.
She laughed as she remembered they nicknamed him “Flash,” because of how fast he was, adding, “Everything he touched turned to gold and he made it shine.”
Pearson wishes he could see Cari one more time, just to tell him how proud of him he is.
He said everyone who knew Cari knew he had a real good heart. And that heart, Pearson said, is missed dearly.
“It’s so weird when this happens. We grew up together. We thought life was going to last forever and then one day it’s a complete 180,” Pearson said. “They’re just gone that fast. … One day everything going smooth, you think you’ve got time with somebody, and it’s just crazy how life goes. You wake up one day and then the next, it’s all over.
“He was always there for those who needed him. He’s just a real good dude. Genuine and always told the truth and told you how it is. … None of this is forever, so this reminds me to make the most of the time we have with the people we love. You never know when the man is going to punch your ticket, so we have to be good while we’re here for each other. That’s what Cari would have wanted. It’s not just who he was, it’s who he is and it lives on in all of us.”
Najee Marshall, a Godbrother, moved into Cari’s house in 2014, sharing a room together.
He holds so many fond memories of Cari.
When IHOP first opened on Miller Road, they were there two to three times a week. Cari would order the pancakes and Marshall the French toast.
Cari’s first studio was inside of Marshall’s apartment.
Marshall remembered Cari as the funniest dude in the room, leaving a positive impact on everyone who met him. He would give advice, his shoulder to cry on and simply be there for people when they needed someone the most, he said.
The two had a bond like no other. The two truly were brothers, Marshall said.
“Man, he really changed me. I had all sisters, so when I moved in with him, that’s the first time I ever had a brother. Just being able to kick it with him and do boy stuff. That was everything, man,” Marshall said. “Just being able to be around him and have a brother, it was good to have that in my life.
“I ain’t really got too many people I can count on for anything. And to not have him here no more, I lost my brother. … It will never ever be the same without him here. That’s a piece of all of us gone forever. There is no way we’ll ever get that back, and it hurts a lot.”
During the celebration of life ceremony, Burnette and other family and friends joined together to light candles in Cari’s honor, spelling out his nickname “Cari” at center court.
Burnette also wrote a personal poem in dedication to her son and read it aloud:
You got me out here, I don’t know what to do with myself, these emotions I can’t help. It’s hard sometimes to keep ‘em to myself.
But I do what I gotta do to maintain my mental health.
I thought I was gone leave this here Earth when I was told I had to put you, my oldest, in the dirt.
Man, I can’t begin to describe all the pain and all the hurt.
All the feeling that I had and thought I knew. Everything went black and numb when I lost you.
But I promised you I’ll do my best I can to get through.
All I’m trying to say baby boy is I miss you.
I know you witness everything that’s going on, but keeping it a buck, we barely holding on.
Vontay still trying to find his way. He doing things, well, the Vontay way.
And that’s all imma say about dat but it was no way I was gone leave him out, no cap.
Yo baby sister Lay walked across that stage, and we was all filled with joy and pain… joy cause she did her thang and pain for the obvious reason, no need to explain.
All I’m trying to say baby boy is I miss you.
Needless to say Bre won’t never love again.
Her heart ice cold because she lost her homie, her lover, her best friend and she’ll never believe in none of that again.
Vel taken it hard too, of course. He’ll never find another brother as solid as you, and that’s the worst.
Najee come see me when he on this side. We all try to hold it together while seeing nothing but pain in each other eyes.
No matter how rough the road we gone stay down and stay true.
All I’m trying to say baby boy is I miss you.
As for me, well no need to say much. This tragedy just magnified my lack of trust.
I don’t sleep much, which is something I’m working on.
It’s extremely hard s*** I just wish heaven had a phone.
No matter the price, I’m still always 10 toes down for you.
All I want you to know baby boy is I miss you.
Burnette still holds a Spiderman keychain — Cari’s favorite superhero — on her at all times as a daily reminder of her son.
Cari’s death was one of 67 homicides in Flint in 2021, the most violent year in the city’s violent crime rate since 2012.
RELATED: Flint continues to grapple with rising homicide rate, violent crimes in 2021
Burnette said the lowered age to get handguns is irresponsible and that too many young lives are being lost to gun violence nationwide, but also right here in Flint.
“It’s bad enough kids are getting them illegally, but now at 18, kids can get them and they are more accessible. That really needs to be changed for some greater patrol on gun control,” she said. “Things like this could happen less, and we need more strict laws.
“My advice for these kids: Everything that glitters is not gold. You all have to live with reality. Once you make a choice, there are always consequences. This stuff may look glamorous, but when you go to jail, you’re the only one in there. If you die, you’re the only one going. These young people need to make better, wiser decisions because there is always a consequence.”
Read more from The Flint Journal:
‘If any town can bounce back, it’s Holly.’ Residents resilient after massive downtown fire
EPA sending on-scene coordinators to assist in Flint River oil spill
‘You are awesome and you will always be enough’: More than 640 graduate from Grand Blanc High School
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