Family friends call Wilmington man’s murder ‘senseless’ act of violence

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A shooting in Wilmington left a 22-year-old man dead last week.

It happened around 3 p.m. Friday afternoon near Meares and 12th streets. Quashon Hardy was shot and killed.

“These bullets don’t have names on them,” Asya Session, who considered Hardy her nephew, said. “These kids are hurting.”

Close friends of the victim started a GoFundMe to help his family pay for his funeral.

“No mother should have to bury their child,” Session said.

Friends say he was a role model to so many younger boys in the community and couldn’t understand they call a “senseless” act of violence.

Wilmington Police got a call to the 1000 block of Meares Street Friday afternoon. That’s where they found Hardy shot and killed in the passenger’s side of a car.

Family friends who knew Hardy were devastated when they got the news.

“Why him?” Session said. “Why Qua? He wasn’t that type of person, so it’s just a big void. A big question mark.”

Hardy helped coach basketball at the MLK Center with Session and his mother, Shona. Friends say he was always a role model that his brother and their children looked up to.

“He had that support system,” Session said.”

Michelle Crittenden, whose son was also coached by Hardy, says his mother always tried to make sure he was on a path to success.

“She did everything right by him, and he still got taken away from here,” Crittenden said. Senseless.”

Session says Hardy always tried to stay out of trouble growing up.

“He just had a genuine spirit about him,” Session said. “Happy life. You could tell by the way he was raised. The morals and the values they instilled in him, he carried with him every day. no matter where he went, no matter who it was, he’d give you the shirt off his back even if he didn’t have it. As a young man, helping older people and younger people. You don’t meet people like that.

Session says the boys at the MLK Center loved Hardy, and he was a positive influence that a lot of them needed.

“He was the big brother to not even just our team, but any team that was in the gym practicing or playing, all the kids knew Coach Qua,” Session said. “All the kids wanted to come play on our team. ‘Pick me. Pick me.’ They all looked up to him.”

Wilmington Police say Hardy’s death marks the 19th homicide of the year. Five of those, including Hardy’s, are unsolved.

Police say the highest number of homicides in a year since 2010 was 20 in 2017. They say cases go unsolved oftentimes because nobody will come forward with information.

“Some of them don’t know any difference than the violence,” Session said. “We want better for our children. We want better for our youth.”

They’re now trying to spread the word not only about the GoFundMe for his mother and family, but about the need to put an end to violence in Wilmington.

“That’s my nephew in a sense. Maybe not by blood, but by love,” Session and Crittenden said. “We’re all related. We’re all family.”

The GoFundMe will go to Hardy’s family to help with any expenses related to his death.

“We just wanted to rally around coach, because she’s just been so important in our children’s lives, and she’s such a wonderful person and mother. No mother should ever have to bury their child.”

Police are still investigating this case. If you have any information, contact the Wilmington Police Department, or text an anonymous tip to 847411 (TIP411) by including the key word, ‘WPDNC’.