Slain youth mentor ‘Big Chris’ leaves hole in hundreds of young Tacoma hearts
They called him “Big Chris” because of his physical presence and the size of his heart.
Tacoma youth mentor Christian Cherry, 24, died Dec. 26, nearly two weeks after he was shot near Bates Technical College’s Central/Mohler campus on Dec. 14. His death has left a hole in the lives of the hundreds of children and adults who knew him.
“He was a gentle giant and a magnet for the young people and they loved him,” said John Gaines, who worked with Cherry at PUSH for Dreams — one of several youth-oriented charities and programs for which he worked and volunteered.
Tacoma police haven’t released much information about Cherry’s unsolved homicide. He was shot multiple times at South 19th and State streets, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office announced Wednesday.
“It looks like he was probably killed trying to stop somebody from committing a crime,” Det. William Muse said. The investigation into Cherry’s homicide has been heightened since his death.
Mentor and educator
Tacoma Community College’s basketball program drew the 6-foot-8-inch Cherry to Tacoma in 2020 where he played center, according to the school’s website.
Cherry worked at Tacoma’s Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center where Turner Cagle was his supervisor. Cagle is also an assistant basketball coach for TCC. He recruited Cherry to the center in 2020.
Cherry worked in the center’s Childhood Education and Assistance Program. The center employs 105 people, but Cherry stood out, literally and figuratively, Cagle said.
“It’s hard for me because he was like one of the kids to me. … I lost a kid,” Cagle, 42, said Wednesday.
It was Cherry’s youth that allowed him to relate with older youth, Cagle said.
“He had a real calm spirit,” Cagle said. “A lot of our kids are coming from a lot of trauma, a lot of chaos. He was just a calming voice. And he was so big, not just physically, but you know, spiritually and emotionally and all that and so they felt safe and protected around him.”
New York raised
Cherry grew up on New York’s Long Island, raised by mother Joeanna Cherry. Cherry’s caring attitude developed at an early age, she told The News Tribune Wednesday.
“I call him the Pied Piper of children,” she said. “Younger children and geriatrics. They were just drawn to him because he is caring.”
At age 15, Cherry became one of the youngest counselors ever hired at a New York youth enrichment center for underprivileged children, according to his mother.
Cherry was starting his own photography and video business in Tacoma, Joeanna Cherry said.
“Maybe three or four days before all this, he hit me up and he said, ‘Mom, thank you for believing in me’,” she recalled.
Joeanna Cherry flew out from her New York home as soon she heard about the shooting.
Grief
The kids Cherry worked with range in age from preschoolers to middle schoolers, according to Roxy Magno, the Multicultural Center’s director of outreach services. The center serves more than 200 families.
“The kids just instantly gravitated towards him,” she said. “They just thought that he was the coolest thing.”
Cherry played video games with the kids and created art with them. For older youth, he was a role model and mentor. Childrens’ behavior instantly improved the moment he walked into a room, Magno said.
“He knew what it meant to be a strong Black man in these kids lives,” she said. “He knew what it meant to be a loving person, allowing them to have their feelings and just give them that space.”
Cherry’s laugh, she said, could bellow through a building.
An assembly was held Thursday for kindergarten aged children and older to help them understand and process their grief over Cherry’s death, she said.
“We talked about grief and about loss and community and family,” Magno said. Children drew pictures and wrote goodbye letters in small groups.
“And then we did a balloon release with them to their favorite songs that they would sing with him,” she said.
Legacy
Cherry’s former TCC basketball teammate Tejhan Potts-Woods is dealing with the grief over his friend’s death but isn’t surprised that he might have died while stopping a crime.
“If he was to see something that was not done the right way, I’m sure he tried to put his word in,” Potts-Wood said Wednesday. “He was a really good guy about knowing right from wrong.”
Joeanna Cherry hopes that her son’s caring nature and concern for his adopted home will continue and that gun violence will cease.
“We have to start valuing ourselves more,” she said while on a break from making funeral arrangements. “He wanted to keep the kids safe. He wanted them to grow up, he wanted them to have opportunities. You can’t do that if you continue to have gun violence in the communities, taking them when they’re young, when they’re just actually starting to get off the ground and start to realize who they are.”
A celebration of life for Cherry will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, inside the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center’s community hall at 2102 South 23rd St., Tacoma.
This story was originally published January 4, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
