CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer
“I try to be strong, not to show my family my pain.” - Jazmin Nazario
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Mourning After
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‘Enjoy the little things … ’
Jazmin Nazario recalls an affectionate life with her mother.
"Stop talking like that," Jazmin says.
Sometimes she's tempted to ask her mother to quit and find something safer. But she doesn't. Isabel wants Jazmin to go to college and get a good education. That's why she joined the police force. And why she stays.
"Being a cop," Jazmin says, "is a good, steady job."
When her mother puts on her uniform, she looks very professional. Her boots are shined, her uniform dry-cleaned and starched.
All her life, Isabel has played by the rules and believes those who do will be rewarded. Once, she had to control a crowd in the Badlands. Carlos was on the job that day and watched her in awe.
"How can you betray us by being a cop?" he heard someone shout in Spanish.
"I'm not betraying you," Isabel answered. "I'm setting an example for our race."
Little things get big
In the car on the way home from school, Pat talks about a friend who was just killed in an accident in Mayagüez.
"How did it happen?" Isabel asks.
"Her husband lost control of the car."
She takes her backpack and goes to her room to do homework while Pat starts dinner.
Isabel lies down to take a nap before her night shift. A few hours later, when she gets up, Jazmin has dozed off. Isabel doesn't wake her.
It will be the rare night when they don't kiss each other before she leaves for work.
Isabel gets into her uniform and puts on her police cap. Inside the crown, she has a photo of Jazmin from seventh grade, her dark bangs cut straight, a bright pink shirt, and a wide grin.
Jazmin hates the picture. She doesn't know her mother carries it around with her.
Not long after Isabel leaves for work, Jazmin gets up. She spends the evening in her room. About 9 p.m., while she is poking around on MySpace and listening to music, Andre Butler, a troubled 16-year-old from West Philadelphia, jumps into a stolen white 1999 Cadillac Escalade. Police chase him. He tears through the city, running red lights and stop signs, hitting 75 miles an hour. Isabel and her partner are called to assist in his pursuit.
They head south on 39th Street and enter the intersection at Wallace. Isabel, in the passenger seat, can see the white Cadillac charging toward her.
Into the maelstrom
Just before 10 p.m., Carlos calls Jazmin's cell.
