Camden mourns 13-year-old murder victim

The family and friends of Nate Plummer Jr. celebrated his 14th birthday a day early, by filling the pews and balcony of a Camden church, standing against walls, and spilling into the hallway. They sang along with hymns, whispered words of goodbye as they stood over his casket, wiped tears from each other's faces, and held one another in their arms.

More than 450 people packed the Tabernacle of Faith Church on Monday for the funeral of Plummer, Camden's first homicide victim this year. He was gunned down shortly after 11 p.m. on Jan. 7 near his grandmother's East Camden home.

There are typically more than 30 killings each year in Camden, which has been called the most dangerous city in America because of its high per capita homicide rate. Though several of 2015's 32 victims were teenagers, Plummer is the youngest in several years, and his death has sparked a public outpouring not seen in other recent deaths.

Mayor Dana L. Redd attended the service, as well as City Council President Frank Moran, Camden County Sheriff Gilbert "Whip" Wilson, Assemblyman Arthur Barclay, and School Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard.

"The best way we can celebrate this life that was taken too soon is to put our guns down," Redd told the crowd.

Pastors, friends, and a teacher spoke of Plummer's popularity among his seventh-grade classmates, and his enthusiasm for boxing and the Dallas Cowboys. Plummer was supposed to play in his first school basketball game last week. He still had braces on his teeth.

But in the months before his death, Plummer started drifting from his loved ones, according to his mother, Taisha Mercado. He was running away from home and spending time with kids she didn't trust. Last month, someone fired bullets into their home. Fearing for her son's safety, Mercado was in the process of moving the family out of Camden when Plummer was killed.

Several who spoke at the funeral urged the mourners to see the shooting as a turning point for the city.

"This is Camden's moment," said Jose Mercado, the boy's maternal grandfather. "Parents, get your children. Get them. Because if you don't, the streets will."

Pastor Leroy Nesbitt III of Emmanuel United Pentecostal Church, Plummer's godfather, said changing Camden's violent culture would require sacrifice from parents and others in the community.

"From this point on, we will do better," he said. "If we're going to flip this whole script, it's up to us to do it. ... I'm not talking about a few meetings and a few marches. I'm talking about a whole movement. We have to lift this city to another level."

No one has been charged in Plummer's killing, but sources have identified a 16-year-old Camden girl as a suspect. She was with Plummer shortly before he died, according to those sources, and turned herself in to police days after Plummer's death. She faces charges of attempted murder in a separate nonfatal shooting and has been in custody since then.

The Camden County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on the investigation into Plummer's death, and the office has not released any information on potential suspects.

On Monday, Mercado kissed her son's face before sitting beside her two daughters. A friend read aloud a poem Mercado wrote to her son: "I'll brave the bitter grief that comes, and I'll try my best to understand. Nate, why did you have to go away? ... A thousand words won't bring you back."

Plummer's father, Nathaniel Sr., who is in federal custody facing charges that he helped run a Camden drug ring, sat with them. A federal judge last week granted him permission to attend the funeral. He was arrested last September by agents who raided his home and handcuffed him in front of his son. Mercado said the arrest was devastating to the younger Plummer, who became withdrawn and defiant afterward. Though the elder Plummer had been in and out of prison for much of the child's life, she said, Nate seemed to sense something was different this time.

The elder Plummer had a friend read aloud a letter he wrote to his son, promising to be a better father to his other children.

"I love you until eternity," he said. "I'm sorry I failed to protect you, son."

Plummer attended Octavius V. Catto School, where his aunt is a teacher. Several other relatives work for the city school district.

In an interview last week, Mercado said she knew her son was headed for trouble. She saw posts on Facebook that led her to suspect he was involved with gang activity. Days before his death, she said, police found him driving a stolen car with several friends. She had arranged for Plummer to get therapy, and after finding bullet casings in her living room, she asked authorities to help her move to another house. She tried to get help, she said - it just didn't come in time.

"I feel as though my son was lost, and didn't know how to say it," she said. "And I think he was afraid."

After his death, she said, Redd came to her home and prayed with her. Rouhanifard also visited, and she told him she would do anything she could to bring greater attention to the city's youth violence.

"If this can happen to my son, who had a loving family looking out for him," she said, "it can happen to any of Camden's children."

asteele@phillynews.com

856-779-3876 @AESteele