Intruders burst into North Linden home demanding money
Saturday, January 19, 2008 3:10 AM
By Theodore Decker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

He played the sousaphone, sang in his high school’s production of The Wiz last winter, and had a girlfriend who liked how her first name sounded with his last.

And early yesterday, 17-year-old Dennis Lewis was shot to death trying to protect his mother from masked intruders who had burst into their North Linden home.

“You got three people, three cowardly people, who took a child’s life,” Dan Lewis, an uncle, said. “This is just senseless.”

Police said at least three and as many as five robbers broke into the home at 1161 Loretta Ave. that April Lewis shared with her son about 1:40 a.m.

April Lewis said the men demanded money despite her insistence that she had none. One held a gun to her head as others searched the home.

The commotion roused Dennis Lewis, who rushed to his mother’s aid and fought with the intruders. He was tackled and shot before they ran from the house.

“They had a fight with the victim, quite a fight,” Sgt. Dana Norman of the Columbus police homicide squad said.

Lewis, who would have turned 18 on Jan. 31, died at Ohio State University Medical Center at 2:17 a.m.

Norman would not detail how the intruders got in, but he said they made enough of an effort that police think the home was targeted to be robbed.

“As far as we know, this is where they meant to come,” he said.

Why they singled out the house is another matter.

Relatives said there was nothing of value to take and wondered if the robbers hit the wrong house. Police said the family is a good one, and Norman joined Lewis’ many friends and relatives in saying that he was the innocent victim of mindless violence.

“He died in honor for his mother,” said his sister, Diane Lewis. “He fought with everything he had.”

Of the four Lewis siblings, only Dennis still lived at home, she said.

Dennis, a senior at East on Arcadia High School, was a stellar student and a member of the band, drama club and track team, Principal Edward Johnson said.

His twin brother, Derris, was often at his side.

“He’s a part of me,” Derris said.

Dennis had talked with friends and family about attending college, maybe in Florida. East band director Martha Hal said she last met with him on Thursday, when they discussed Alabama State University, a school known for its band program. Hal had proposed taking him and some other interested students on a trip to visit the school later this year.

“Today we were supposed to set the date,” she said last night.

Dennis said he wanted to attend college so he could help his mother, she said.

Hal said Dennis was a proud member of the marching band’s sousaphone section, nicknamed the Sonic Bomb. He played tuba and baritone at a collegiate level, relishing the instruments’ power.

“Dennis could play as if he were four people,” she said.

For the past year and a half, he worked at the Giant Eagle supermarket at N. High and Olentangy streets, where he recently had been promoted. Company spokesman Mike Duffey said co-workers described him as “a hardworking and promising young man.”

“He’s one of those kids you want everybody else to be like,” his principal said. “There were a lot of adults who could learn things from him.”

“These kids were good every day, all day, all year,” Johnson said of the Lewis twins. “They didn’t have any enemies. They didn’t make any enemies. They were just ideal kids.”

Wearing the winter coat Dennis had given her for Christmas in 2006, Jasmine Maxwell pointed out just how nice “Jasmine Maxwell Lewis” sounded. They dated on and off for four years.

Her boyfriend, she said, “was a very smooth fellow.”

“He was so sexy!” she exclaimed, to her own delight and the jaw-dropping laughter of the girls around her.

He was also ambitious, said Alexis Franklin, 18.

Organized and mature, said Andre Johnson, 17.

“He had goals,” Johnson said.

He always spoke his mind, the friends said, and his favorite saying was this: “It is what it is.”

“He didn’t deserve this,” Hal, the band director, said. “We’ve all lost this time. Not just East. Not just Columbus. We’ve all lost.”

tdecker@dispatch.com

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