Evans remembered for his impact at funeral, candlelight vigil

IRVINGTON, NJ — The funeral was held Friday, Dec. 18, at Irvington’s Christian Pentecostal Church for Darrel “Creep” Evans, the former Crips gang member who became famous for appearing on the Sundance television documentary “Brick City” a few years ago.

According to police, Evans was shot to death on Clinton Place in Newark on Monday, Dec. 7.

Evans wife, Jaida, a former gang member from the rival Bloods gang, also featured in many “Brick City” episodes, planned a candlelight vigil for him in Newark on Friday, Dec. 11, according to Bashir Akinyele, a host of the “All Politics Are Local” radio show on Rutgers’ WRNU.

On Dec. 11, Sharif Amenhotep, the vice chairman of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, and his colleagues held a candlelight vigil and rally for Evans at the corner of Hobson Street and Shaw Avenue; they were joined by Akinyele and Earl Best, who said they had come to pay their last respects to a fallen comrade.

“We’re out here today to pay homage to one of our comrades, a fallen soldier, brother Creep, who was gunned down senselessly out here on the corner of Hobson and Shaw,” Amenhotep said Dec. 11. “He definitely showed an example for young black men that you can be a Crip, but you can still do positive things in your community. He was more than just that documentary.”

Amenhotep said the “Brick City” documentary was a testament to the power of love between Creep and Jaida, and that it showed, “If you love somebody, anything can happen, because his queen was a Blood.”

“That was a huge sacrifice, very dangerous,” Amenhotep said.
“He was very courageous to go … public with that to show that he loved a woman and he was willing to go be with her at any cost. But despite only the movie, he was also a father and a mentor and he saved a lot of lives in the city of Newark.”
Amenhotep said Evans mentored around the high school, whenever called upon to do so.

He said his friend wouldn’t hesitate to intercede in conflicts between rival Crips and Bloods gang members, to help find peaceful solutions to problems.

“Creep answered the call,” Amenhotep said. “He would come up there to talk to the young people for them, to settle their differences, to put their guns down. He was great for conflict resolution for young people.

“He saved a lot of lives in the city, so he will be greatly missed. He was definitely monumental in the ceasefire that occurred in the city of Newark in 2004, with Bloods and Crips, when over 200 Bloods and Crips came together to stop the violence. So he will always be remembered.”

Aughkay Green, an Irvington native, said he knew Evans as someone who was active in the Save Our Streets movement that tried to use hip-hop and rap music to promote peace in the violent Newark city streets.

“Bloods loved him just as much as Crips gang members loved him,” Green said Dec. 11.
“He was a family man who took care of his kids. I watched him be a family man, work, do things and have things that people wouldn’t think a ‘gang member’ would have.

“I hope there’s awareness that this spilling blood on the streets is really senseless.”