CHILD'S DEATH LENDS URGENCY AS DEA ANTI-DRUG SUMMIT OPENS

Youngster's mother tells gathering, 'I surely believe God's got his strength
in me'

Ayear after gunfire apparently intended for a Prichard police officer struck
and killed 6-year-old Kearis Bonham, the slain child's family fights to end
violence in their neighborhood.

Kearis' mother, Kiesha Bonham, and her sister, Venisha Bonham-Taylor,
participated in the Drug Enforcement Administration's two-day drug summit,
which started Wednesday and is aimed at developing strategies to push drug
traffic out of Mobile and Prichard.

Kearis' death is one of the main reasons why the DEA brought its program to
Mobile and Prichard, said Micah Miller, special agent with the DEA.

Kearis was killed Dec. 12, 2001, as he sat on his grandfather's porch, only
yards from Queens Court Apartments where, according to law en forcement
officials, somebody angered about a shooting involving narcotics agents the
day before ambushed police.

Local, state and federal officials met before the summit at an early
breakfast with Bonham and Taylor and talked about the Integrated Drug
Enforcement Assistance program, or IDEA, which is designed to combine
treatment with enforcement, counseling and other measures. It could give the
Mobile area an advantage in securing federal grants.

"We have been unable to kill the drug market and we will be unable to kill
the drug market without treatment facilities," said Prichard Police Chief
Sammie Brown at Spot of Tea Restaurant in downtown Mobile, where the
officials ate breakfast.

Those who spoke at the restaurant focused on the idea of drug addiction
rehabilitation as a key factor to include in any plan to help the problems
in Mobile and Prichard.

"They can make arrests, but the market just moves somewhere else," Brown
said. "So many times people think law enforcement is the key to the problem
and we're not."

Brown and the other 250 summit participants broke into groups Wednesday to
identify problems in the community and develop strategies to alleviate them.
The group sessions will continue today.

Prichard Mayor Charles Harden said he is not afraid to confront the crime
that lingers between the two cities.

"Now we have an umbrella and we're going to squeeze them out of the
community," Harden said of drug dealers.

Mobile Mayor Mike Dow did not attend Wednesday's breakfast or summit.

Bonham said she supported IDEA during the summit.

"I surely believe God's got his strength in me," Bonham said in an interview
after the breakfast. "My courage has increased, basically."

Both Bonham and Taylor said they are glad people remember their child. Life
in their neighborhood near the Queens Court Apartments has returned to the
dangerous environment, steeped in drug deals and violence, as it was last
December, Taylor said.

"We thought that things have been forgotten and we had been left behind,"
she said. "This summit lets us know they still are trying to deal with the
problem."

Since Kearis Bonham's slaying, six men and a woman are awaiting trial on
capital murder charges as a result of the shooting.

Taylor said she knows her nephew won't be the last child victim of
drug-related crimes. Even after this effort, she said, drug dealers may
return, but she plans to do everything she can to keep opposing them.

"Our children are our future. Without them we have no future. If nothing
comes of his death and he died in vain, it shows a lot about our society's
viewpoint of what a child is," Taylor said.

Because of much drug-related crime, the 2001 shooting of Mobile police
Officer Thomas Leland Terrell and Bonham's death, the area was picked as one
of five spots in the country to participate in IDEA. Other sites include
Allentown, Pa.; North Charleston, S.C.; Portsmouth, Va.; and Springfield,
Mo.

Administrators have not set aside grant money for the program, but the DEA
is to serve as a broker between citizens and the organizations that can fund
particular projects.

Asa Hutchinson, DEA director, told the summit participants, which included
about two-dozen Mobile area students, that the DEA has about 4,500 agents in
56 countries.

"You cannot solve the world's drug problems with 4,500 agents," Hutchinson
said. "It takes the heart and soul of everyone in this room. You need the
character quality of hope."