DaShamone McCarty, the Dakota College athlete and Proviso East graduate who was fatally shot in Maywood on May 16, will be buried Friday at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park after services at Rock of Ages Church in Maywood.
But family and friends will not be using the Proviso East Social Room for the funeral luncheon, after the Proviso Township High School District 209 school board declined to reverse an earlier decision made by the district.
Antoinette Gray, a Proviso alumna and insurance broker in Maywood, spoke to the board Tuesday, asking them to reconsider the district’s refusal to use the school property. She said that the school had allowed the room to be used a couple of years ago when three students were killed in an auto accident.
“What I want to know is why we can’t use the Social Room for his repast?” Gray said. “DaShamone McCarty is a fallen [Proviso East] Pirate. He wore his Proviso colors proud.”
McCarty was a three-sport athlete at PEHS, lettering in football, basketball and track. He went by DeShawn McCarthy while a student at Proviso. He had just finished his freshman year at Dakota in Bottineau, ND and had returned to Maywood for summer vacation.
Maywood police said Thursday he was shot and killed near 4th Avenue and Fillmore while a passenger in a car with three other people at around 11 p.m.
Proviso East coach Scottie Ware joined Gray to set up a fund to pay for funeral expenses for the athlete, who lived with a best friend’s family in Maywood while attending the high school.
Ware saw McCarty the afternoon before he was shot. “I spoke with him often,” Ware said. “[McCarty] came by the school the morning before. He dropped by to see all his teachers and coaches. He told me he’d be coming out in the next morning to support the team at the sectional track meet.”
Ware said the fund has received one significant anonymous donation.
“What’s remaining after we’ve paid for services will go into a scholarship fund. We’ll give a scholarship to a student every year going forward in his name,” Ware said.
Gray said Wednesday she was discouraged that the school did not want to host the event.
“I’m an alumna of Proviso East,” she said. “I know [McCarty] was a good kid. They called him “Spuddy,” that was his nickname. [The bullet] was not meant for him. He was trying to make more of his life,” she said.
Although Gray never met McCarty, she said she had learned about his life since the shooting.
“He had some hard times. His best friend’s family took him in raised him as their own, they were angels for him,” Gray said. “For him to leave us this way is disheartening for me. These kids leave us too soon.”
Visitation for McCarty will take place Thursday at House of Branch Funeral Home, 3125 W. Roosevelt Rd., Chicago from noon to 6 p.m. On Friday, McCarty’s wake starts at 11 a.m., followed by services at noon at Rock of Ages Church, 1309 Madison St., Maywood. Interment will take place at Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park.
Contributors to the burial/scholarship fund can make a donation to the DaShamone McCarty Scholarship Fund at any JP Morgan Chase Bank, Deposit account #445962793.
