DeKalb County family grieves over death of student

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A DeKalb County family is heartbroken after the murder of a college student. The 20-year-old was gunned down at a party over the weekend.

Stevenson Derival, a junior at Brewton-Parker College, was killed during a party in Montgomery County.

Derival’s mother clutched his photo and tried to tell the story of her son through tears and overwhelming emotion. She wanted to tell about the incredible man her son was going to be, but dealing with the loss of her first born, it proved too difficult.

Two of his classmates and his sister said his death was senseless. All said they hope an arrest is made quickly in the case.

“You could never see him mad or stressing about something, you could never tell because he was always smiling,” said Wendal Johnson, a childhood friend.

Derival was born in Haiti and raised near Decatur. He was a proud 2015 graduate of Towers High School in DeKalb County. He excelled in wrestling and track and field and did the same at Brewton-Parker College. He was a criminal justice major with big hopes and even bigger dreams.

“He would always say ‘I just love my family, I just want to make my family proud of me.’ And I would tell him ‘baby, I'm proud of you. It's not you that I’m worried.’ Because I tell all my brothers that, ‘I know it's not you guys because you come from good family, it’s not you guys I’m worried about, I'm worried about those demons out here,’” said Rebecca Joseph, cousin

“You heard him, parents, mothers, fathers, sisters, cousins, grandmothers. It's a lot of people you affect. So with the violence, you got to stop. It's got to go,” said Johnson

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting Mt. Vernon Police piecing together what happened. Police said there were about 200 people at the party and hope some of the witnesses will come forward to help flesh out what happened and make an arrest.