Opinion

ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: Wilson murder strikes at heart of community

Gwen Grogan, Anthony Wilson's mother-in-law, holds a photo taken four years ago of Wilson and his wife and Grogan's daughter, Glenda Wilson, outside Grogan's house Friday afternoon. Photo taken on Friday, 04/12/19. Ryan Welch/The Enterprise less Gwen Grogan, Anthony Wilson's mother-in-law, holds a photo taken four years ago of Wilson and his wife and Grogan's daughter, Glenda Wilson, outside Grogan's house Friday afternoon. Photo taken on Friday, ... more Photo: Ryan Welch, Staff Photographer / The Enterprise Photo: Ryan Welch, Staff Photographer / The Enterprise Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: Wilson murder strikes at heart of community 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

This one really hurts. There are homicides almost every month in any large city, and sometimes we tend to read about them and move on. But last week’s killing of Anthony Wilson in Beaumont was one of those losses that leaves you numb with anger and grief. This one touches everyone who cares about Beaumont and Southeast Texas, everyone who wants to leave something better for the next generation.

Anthony was the exact type of person every city needs to become better. He was a 37-year-old man with a loving wife and two children. A Lamar graduate. He was an entrepreneur, owner of a landscaping business that even had two employees. He was living and building the American dream — for himself, for his family, for others.

And in one tragic moment last week, it was all gone. Police say he saw three young men trying to break into his truck on Wisteria, confronted them and followed them. He was shot and killed about a half-mile from his home. The suspects allegedly took his truck and work trailer but abandoned it a short distance away.

Senseless. Gut-wrenching. Infuriating.

This isn’t just a nightmare for Wilson’s family and friends. Beaumont has been deprived of a young man who was having an impact in an ever-widening circle of people. In a city that often loses young achievers like him, he stayed — and was prospering. A man who should have been nurtured and protected by his city was removed from it in a senseless act of violence. A part of our future went with him.

And what can you say about the three young men who are accused of doing something so cruel and unfathomable? They were students at West Brook. Think about that: high school students. Teenagers. Instead of building their own futures, thinking about math classes and what they might do after they graduate, they were suspected in a string of auto burglaries in the West Dowlen neighborhood. And when someone tried to stop them from committing another crime, one of them allegedly shot him.

That’s hard to process, and it’s too common. Police Chief Jimmy Singletary said that over the past four years, Beaumont has been plagued by a large number of young men committing violent crime and “showing absolutely no remorse.”

That’s unacceptable — for them, for us, for everyone who cares about Beaumont. We have to figure out why these children and teenagers are growing up like this, so unmoored and dangerous, and we have to change the trajectory of their lives.

Because we can’t lose any more Anthony Wilsons. If we do, eventually we won’t have a city that produces any more of them.