Matthew Fortenberry loved basketball, and earlier this month his school team had won a championship. His Glen Oaks Park Elementary School team was supposed to be honored at Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting.
Instead, his parents and Baton Rouge leaders stood in the council chambers to announce a funeral expense fund for the 11-year-old boy, who was shot and killed last week.
Michael Fortenberry spoke of his son’s straight A grades and success on the basketball court before pleading for an end to gun violence in Baton Rouge.
“Something’s got to happen, something’s got to stop, something’s got to change,” Michael Fortenberry said. “I’m not the only father that’s probably going to be up here, probably not the last.”
Donations to the Matthew Fortenberry Funeral Expense Fund can be made at any b1Bank location or online at b1BANK.com, bank chief of staff Heather Gatte Roemer said. Cash and checks are accepted. Locate the nearest b1Bank by calling 877-614-7600 or on the bank’s website.
Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome held the hand of Fortenberry’s mother, Francesca Isaac, who wept as she listened to officials plead for a stop to a recent rash of gun violence in Baton Rouge.
“This fund will provide assistance to Matthew’s family as they try to come to terms with their devastating loss,” Broome said. “However, that is not enough. We must come together as a community to take action to prevent such tragedies from happening again.”
Isaac, her husband, and Matthew’s five siblings are in shock and grief after Fortenberry was killed last week.
“We’re not doing good at all,” Isaac said ealier Wednesday.
Police say Matthew and several others were held hostage in a car last Thursday night by a 17-year-old gunman who was trying to draw a relative out of a nearby home. Someone in the car started shooting, and the suspect shot at the car; Matthew was wounded and died at the hospital.
Police later arrested the teen they say killed Matthew; District Attorney Hillar Moore says he plans to charge him as an adult.
“Our hearts go out to the family,” Moore said. “We have jobs to do here in law enforcement — we take this very seriously. This just has to stop.”
Isaac and Matthew’s father will remember him as “outgoing and outspoken,” Isaac said. He is survived by three brothers and two sisters, ages 4 to 18, she said.
Matthew was the third of the couple’s children.
A parade will be held at Glen Oaks Park Elementary School on April 29 to celebrate Matthew’s life, councilman Darryl Hurst said. A foundation in Matthew’s name will also be created to support sports programs at the elementary school.
Despite her enormous grief, Issac says she is trying to maintain a brave face for her kids.
“I have to be strong,” she said. “If I break down, they break down. If they see me losing it, then they’re afraid they’ll lose me.”
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