Photo: Revell Andrews’ friends at his funeral | By Michelle Krupa, CNN | They’d never really had a solid tuba player. The legendary New Orleans music family, of course, had its trumpeters and trombonists, saxes and drummers. But the tuba – namely the circular kind called a sousaphone – is big. And it requires a lot of air. And it scares little kids. And it’s not exactly cool.
Still, Revell Andrews, even as a shy young teenager, picked up on the need for the instrument’s stable foundation in the brass band arrangements his kin play virtually every day in their city’s streets and clubs and across the world.
“For Revell, it was more like, ‘If this is a need in the family, I’ve heard it a few times, let me pick up the tuba,’” recalled his loving cousin, drummer Derrick Tabb.
“And it just so happened to be the instrument that everyone needed.”
There’s another thing about the tuba, though, Tabb said: “You immediately know the difference if you have one there and you don’t.”
And now, stunningly, they don’t.
Not since Revell, 18, was fatally shot while riding in an SUV one Monday afternoon in June, just weeks after his graduation from McDonogh 35 Senior High School.
He’d been with a few close friends – among a tight crew that shared a group text and checked on each other via phone location – collecting everyone from their summer jobs, said Katy Reckdahl, the mother of another boy in the group who hosted Revell in her home when his trombonist dad was on tour.
Three of the kids, in Reckdahl’s Jeep, had stopped at a gas station downriver of the French Quarter, she said. They pulled out around 2:45 p.m., according to a police report, and a 14-year-old allegedly pulled out in a vehicle behind them, a New Orleans homicide detective testified last month about the arrestee in the case, citing witness statements and surveillance footage, CNN affiliate WDSU reported. CNN has reached out to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.
The underage driver then allegedly rolled down their car window and fired, the detective said. Revell got shot in the face and soon died at a hospital, police and his family said – yet another American teen killed in a nation where firearms remain a top cause of death for youth, federal data shows.
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In the weeks after his death, Revell’s father collected from the mail acceptance letters from colleges that didn’t know their offers would no longer be of use, he said. In Revell’s room, Andrews found a pair of his son’s sneakers – Jordan 1s – and slipped in a toe.
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GoFundMe – The Family of Revell Andrews, organized by The Family of Revell Andrews
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support! Please watch this video of thanks from Glen David Andrews on behalf of Revell Peanut Andrews and the family.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/03/us/revell-andrews-us-gun-deaths-gdpr/index.html
“It fits perfect,” he said of the 10 1/2s. “I didn’t even know his foot had got to that size.”
Now, he’s keeping them. And wearing them. And telling anyone who asks: “That’s my son’s shoes.”
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GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-family-of-revell-andrews
Your support successfully covered Revell’s funeral expenses. Thank you. Any additional funds received in this GoFundMe will be used to begin a program in his memory. It will bring New Orleans youth to Vermont in the summers. Details are a work in progress and will be shared shortly.
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series profiling American youth killed this year by guns, a leading cause of death of children in the US. Read more about the project here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/01/us/gun-deaths-project-why-gdpr/index.html
Photo: Revell Andrews’ friends at his grave site. (Courtesy Katy Reckdahl)
He Was Stepping Into a Key Role for His Famous Musical Family. Then a Gunman Approached at a Stop Light
