A mother’s grief

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Bette Clark says she’s immeasurably grateful for the emotional and tangible support given her by family, friends and neighbors after the murder of her 15-year-old son two weeks ago.
But not everyone is lending a helping hand to the grief-stricken single mother from Tacony.
In keeping with a growing trend for city homicide cases, police are having a tough time finding cooperative witnesses to the July 13 shooting in which Timothy Clark, of the 6800 block of Vandike St., and a family friend, Damien Holloway, 27, were wounded fatally in the head.
The slaying occurred at about 2:20 a.m. on the 6900 block of Vandike St. as the victims walked home from a nearby 7-Eleven. Bette Clark says they went to the store to buy food and drinks for work the next day. "Timmy," as he was known, and Holloway planned to mow lawns for cash.
Clark never thought her son would join the rapidly growing list of Philadelphia murder victims.
"Never, never," Clark sobbed last Thursday, one day after burying her youngest of three sons.
"I read the news a lot. And my heart goes out to the (victims’) families. But a lot of what you hear about, it’s in North Philly and South Philly and West Philly. It’s drug-related or gang-related. But my son was such a good kid. All he did was go to the store and (try to) go home."
Homicide investigators say they have gotten few, if any, solid leads in the case. The evidence suggests that it was not a random killing and that the killer or killers got very close to the victims before firing the fatal shots.
Clark claims that people — possible witnesses in this case — are always out and about on her street, even at that time of the morning. She’s lived on the block for 15 years.
"Around here in the summertime? All the time," she said.
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Very little space separates the narrow, two-story twin homes on the block from one another and from the street. The spot where Timmy Clark died is readily visible from outside his home a block away.
A multi-story apartment building towers over the actual spot, with more than a half-dozen windows offering unobstructed views of the street below.
One can imagine the killer or killers fleeing through a gauntlet of potential witnesses, no matter what direction they ran.
One neighbor told the Northeast Times that he put his trash on the curb after 2 a.m. and was still awake in his home when, according to authorities, the crime occurred. But he heard no gunshots and saw no one racing down the street.
Detectives are now trying to locate and interview anyone who may have passed through the area shortly before the murder. Perhaps they unknowingly saw the gunman or men preparing their apparent ambush.
"We’re looking for anybody who was in the area ten or fifteen minutes prior (to the shootings) who had seen anything," said Capt. Michael Costello, commander of the homicide unit.
Bette Clark is trying to get some money together to start a reward fund for information about the crime. She’s hoping to work with the Citizens’ Crime Commission to find donors.
Detectives have been working with mainly the same clues that they had within hours of the incident.
The bodies of the two victims lay relatively close to each other midway on the block. According to Clark, her son was on the sidewalk and Holloway in the street.
Timmy Clark died at the scene. Holloway died in a hospital two days later.
Police think that three shots were fired. One struck Holloway in the head, and one struck Clark in the head. They found no shell casings, so the murder weapon could have been a revolver.
Robbery probably wasn’t a motive. The victims had nothing of real value on them, Costello said.
A surveillance machine from the 7-Eleven, at Torresdale Avenue and Disston Street, videotaped the victims inside the store minutes before the shooting.
"There were other people in the 7-Eleven, but (Clark and Holloway) had no interactions, no confrontations," Costello said. "I think they went out to get drinks and snacks at 7-Eleven and were going back (home)."
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Bette Clark and her 21-year-old son, Joe, were at home at the time. The woman says she was asleep when police arrived at her door, so Joe Clark followed the officers down the street to identify his brother.
The youth was about 5-feet-9 and muscular for his age at about 155 pounds, his mother said. He played football and basketball a lot in the street in front of his house.
His friends usually joined him.
"They all came here," Bette Clark said.
When not outside, Timmy and his pals played video games, listened to music and lifted weights in his basement.
"I’d come home, and he’d have five friends around playing video games," Clark said.
Friends slept over at Timmy’s house every weekend.
"I’m not lying. I don’t think there was a weekend in the last five years when he didn’t have a friend over," Bette Clark said.
Timmy attended Hamilton Disston School and Philadelphia Academy Charter School for three years before enrolling at Abraham Lincoln High School. But he missed most of his freshman year at Lincoln with illnesses, his mom said.
He got bronchial pneumonia in November, followed by mononucleosis. While battling that, he got another illness from a stray cat that he convinced his mom to allow into the home.
"They said he had cat-scratch disease," Bette Clark said. "He had to go into surgery. They cut his neck open and drained all of these abscesses around his neck. We used to say he looked like a bulldog."
Timmy didn’t go back to Lincoln. Bette Clark said she wanted to transfer him to Swenson Arts and Technology High School.
"He wanted to learn a trade, to become an auto mechanic. He was good with his fingers," Clark said.
The boy had no troubles with the law, according to his mom. For cash, he would periodically help Holloway with lawn-mowing jobs.
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Much less information is known about the older victim’s background.
According to Bette Clark, Holloway initially befriended her oldest son, Joe. Holloway lived around the corner with a woman but then lost the place. Holloway — a tall, thin man — seemed nice, Clark said, so she let him stay with the family. They called him "Bask."
"We let him stay here off and on," she said. "He locked up his mowers in the back yard. He was a nice person to me. He always treated me with respect."
Holloway’s only criminal record in Philadelphia involved a September 2005 drunken-driving case.
About two years ago, he got stabbed in a fight and had large scars on his abdomen, Clark said. He took prescription medication.
"I knew he had some problems, that he got stabbed," she said.
Clark doesn’t know why anyone would have wanted to kill her son or Holloway.
"I sure know it wasn’t Timmy they were after. I really don’t know," she said.
Her son didn’t have any enemies, she insists, only friends. The procession of mourners at his July 17 viewing lasted four hours. Friends have been a comfort to Bette Clark, her son Joe and her second son Matt, 19.
"This neighborhood has been wonderful to me. People have offered me food and support," Bette Clark said. "People I didn’t even know walked up and hugged me. How do you show that gratitude to them?"
At the same time, she knows that the epidemic of violence has now invaded her neighborhood and her home.
"This violence, it has to stop. The kids are killing each other," Clark said. "I think, ‘Those poor families. I don’t know how they cope.’ And then it happens to me."
Call police at 215-686-3334 or 3335 to report information about the Vandike Street murders. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com