Family of young father killed outside city bar search for answers

Posted at: 06/19/2012 10:58 PM | Updated at: 06/19/2012 11:23 PM
By: Lynette Adams | WHEC.com

The family of a man fatally shot outside a popular bar over the weekend is angry and looking for justice.

Family members say Deavoughn Hernandez-Ruffin was the father of an 8-month-old daughter, and a peaceful person whose interest was having fun- not fighting.

Sunday night, Hernandez-Ruffin found himself in the middle of an argument at the Bug Jar on Monroe Avenue. After the group was forced out into the street, Hernandez-Ruffin was shot and later died.

Hernandez-Ruffin is from a big family. He was one of 30 grandchildren. His family wants people to remember him as someone who loved music, wrote poetry and most importantly, was a peacemaker.

"He was a good kid, and I believe if he had stayed alive he would have been an excellent young man," Frances Ruffin-Scales says of her grandson.

His brother, Deishawn, says, "He was a goofy, joyful, partying dancing...he liked to have fun....he did a lot of music. He wrote a lot of songs."

Family members say Hernandez-Ruffin's ambition was to be the world's greatest dad. Ironically, he was gunned down the night of Father's Day.

"He just became a dad, so now his daughter going to have to grow up without a father. So whoever did this should like think in their mind- 'I took her dad away from her'," Harmony Alexander says about her cousin.

Hernandez-Ruffin's family members are angry and still in shock, and want justice.

"I didn't think I would end up burying my brother at a young age. It's hard for my family," his brother Elvis Hernandez-Ruffin tells News10NBC.

His aunt, Debra Jones, says she's disappointed. "They know young people, they know how they get down...why they couldn't have security around the little place, especially a rap. Come on."

Hernandez-Ruffin was also a student at MCC. Police say they haven't determined if he was the intended target of the shooting.

No arrest has been made yet.

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