A Ghetto Honors Student Is Buried in His Cap and Gown

A Cal State Fullerton honors student from Watts, fatally shot by two men outside a fast-food restaurant as his sister and fiancee looked on, was buried Friday in the cap and gown he was to have worn to his graduation later this month.

Keith Solomon, 22, died early last Sunday at Martin Luther King Hospital. Police are still searching for his killer.

More than 500 friends, co-workers and classmates packed the Tabernacle of Faith Baptist Church on South Central Avenue to tearfully remember Solomon. He was praised as a man who wanted to work to improve his community.

“He was from the ghetto and he didn’t forget about the ghetto,” said Dave Higgins, a classmate. “He could have gotten out of here and bought a house anywhere. But he chose to remain here.”

“He kept saying that he wanted to stay in Watts,” his mother said. “And that if more people from around here with an education would remain here and work in the community, it would make a difference. He wanted to stay and make the difference.”

The Rev. Charles Mims Jr., who delivered the eulogy, implored the mostly young audience to use Solomon as an example of how they should live. “If you drink or get high, then your being here is nothing but a front.”

“The issue is not about who pulled the trigger. And it is not about a short life,” Mims told the family. “You produced a great leader. A man who filled this church. His life meant something.”

Anderson Broussard, 24, met Solomon about 10 years ago. In a way, Broussard said, he envied Solomon. “He was from the ghetto, but he had goals, you know? He was supposed to graduate from college in two weeks. He was never into gangs. I should know. I was.”

His parents, Burnit and Willie Solomon, said earlier reports that the shooting may have been gang-related have caused the family additional pain. Detectives have said that the slaying did not involve gang members.

“It hurt so bad,” his mother, Willie, said in an interview before the funeral. “People heard that on TV and those that knew Keith came to us and said, ‘Gangs? Not the Keith that we know.’ This was no gangland shooting. This kid has got a history of genius,” she said, still speaking of her son in the present tense.

When Solomon was not spending time with Jackie Mitchell, his fiancee of three weeks, he would come straight home every day, said his father, a janitor who was laid off five months ago.

Solomon, his fiancee and his sister, Letitia Solomon, were in a fast-food restaurant on Wilmington Avenue last Saturday evening when an argument that began inside spilled out into the parking lot, said Officer Ted Covey of the Southeast Division.

One of the men swung a pistol at Solomon’s face, which Solomon tried to block with his wrist, police said. The gun went off and the bullet struck Solomon in side of the head. He died about six hours later.

Solomon had completed all of his graduation requirements at Cal State Fullerton in December, said Roger Nudd, the university’s vice president of student services. He was to receive his bachelor’s degree in psychology and would have graduated on May 31 with honors, Nudd said.

Since January, Solomon had been a full-time, welfare-eligibility worker for Los Angeles County in an office near his family home.

‘A Lot of Potential’

“He had a lot of potential,” said his supervisor, Cordelia Murray. “I never saw him become angry with anyone. He would volunteer to assist people.”

Born in New Orleans, Solomon came with his family to Watts when he was 10. The youngest of the Solomons’ three boys and three girls, Keith Solomon always did well in school and sports, his mother said.

Although Solomon was a basketball and football player at Jordan High School in Watts, he decided not to play sports in college so he could concentrate on his studies, his mother said.