At the center of Tanya Bean-Garrett’s home is a makeshift memorial, honoring her teenage son who was shot just steps away in the room next door.

Closet doors have been removed to reveal walls lined with photos, drawings and scrapbook photos of Deston Garrett, a 19-year-old Sacramento Charter High School student athlete who grew up in the Oak Park house. Known to most by his nickname “Nutter,” Garrett was a jokester who always seemed to have a smile on his face. He died from his gunshot wounds, just days before his graduation last June.

The same month, parents, local officials and health professionals launched a multimillion-dollar effort that, over the next five years, aims to reduce the disproportionately high rate of early deaths such as Garrett’s among young African Americans in Sacramento County.

Bean-Garrett said her son’s death especially resonated with her neighbors because of where the shooting happened.

“It was at home, in the comfort of his own room, in a safe place, where other kids came and other parents knew and dropped their children off,” Bean-Garrett said. “Each individual person that has had a death, the story is different but the tragedy is the same.”

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