‘Always together:’ 2 killed in West Dallas shooting were inseparable, lived as brothers (2024)

This story is part of The Dallas Morning News’ homicide project focused on sharing the stories of all people killed in Dallas in 2024.

Jon’Tavion Allen had jet-black, water waves in his hair. It made girls gawk.

Look at your hair! Come here, come with us!

Then a bald spot appeared. Jon’Tavion did the only rational thing a young adult could do: shave his head bare.

Jeriyous Wright, 17, and Jon’Tavion, 20, lived like brothers for nearly a decade. They’d been inseparable. Neighbors at the Villa Creek Apartments in West Dallas said if Jon’Tavion was around, Jeriyous wasn’t too far away.

They boxed, played football and basketball, or foot-raced up and down the complex with the neighborhood kids. If Jeriyous was performing his goofy dance routines, Jon’Tavion watched on with his bright white “Kool-Aid smile.”

Jeriyous loved Jon’Tavion. So of course he buzzed his hair, too.

And every few months, when fuzz sprouted back, they shaved together.

***

Jon’Tavion stood about 5′3″ but swore to anyone he was 5′7″. Once a friend was drowning in a swimming pool and Jon’Tavion jumped in after him. (Jon’Tavion couldn’t swim either.)

His grandmother, Sheryl Whitmill, described him as a “vampire,” a boy who came alive at night. He stayed up watching movies, reconfiguring his room, or cooking — and eating — an entire package of bacon.

Jon’Tavion twice forgot to put water in instant noodles. The first time it caught fire in the microwave.

As a kid, Jon’Tavion got $20 from Whitmill to raid the VA hospital’s canteen, where she worked, for sweets. He was “Lil Smooth” with a video game controller, his mother, Catoniya Bowen, said. Skittles and video games were his vices.

Jon’Tavion and Whitmill always traveled together to the Alfred D. Hughes Unit near Gatesville, about 110 miles southwest of Dallas. There, Jon’Tavion visited with his dad, Jason Allen, who is serving a 60-year sentence for murder. Jon’Tavion and his dad had typical father-son talks about school, work, friends — don’t get a girl pregnant.

“You OK?” Whitmill would ask Jon’Tavion as they left the prison.

“I’m okay,” he’d say. He was quiet the rest of the drive back.

Whitmill wishes she pushed back more. Are you OK? What’s going on? Talk to me. She knew Allen’s incarceration weighed on Jon’Tavion.

***

Jeriyous was a comedian, a jokester. His voice would jump up an octave, to a high-pitched boyish tone, when he saw Donte Royal. Uncle! Uncle! Uncle! It was like he was a big kid again, Royal said.

Everyone called Jeriyous “Rah-Rah.” His favorite song was “Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson.

He won dance battles — Rah-Rah knew all the viral TikTok moves.

“Anthony, do a TikTok,” he’d egg on his best friend, Anthony Williams.

“Nah, I ain’t shaking my hips,” Williams scoffed.

Williams completed Jeriyous and Jon’Tavion’s “Three Stooges” or “Three Musketeers” dynamic, he said. If Jeriyous or Jon’Tavion wanted to go around the block to Jerry’s Market, Williams followed.

He spent days into nights with Rah-Rah and Jon’Tavion at Bowen’s apartment, until they got kicked out for being too loud too late or they snuck out. Rah-Rah usually tried, and failed, a few times to sneak out and meet girls. The girls liked Rah-Rah because of his light skin, tattoos and his grill — a “hood rapper fantasy,” Williams said.

When any third of the trio left, they would say: I love you. I love you, make it back.

***

Jon’Tavion and Jeriyous met two people in the Villa Creek Apartments parking lot to buy drugs the evening of Jan. 16, according to a police narrative. An 18-year-old, Ethyn Leang, drove to the meet-up spot in his gray Lexus. Francisco Herrera, 20, rode in the backseat, allegedly armed with a gun for protection.

Jon’Tavion or Jeriyous asked to see the product. Leang wanted to see the money. One of the boys pointed a handgun at him, and as Leang tried to speed away, they jumped in the car, Leang told police.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Leang crashed the car and ran. He was shot and wounded.

Police say Leang went back and fired once.

Bang.

“Frankie get out!” someone yelled.

According to an arrest-warrant affidavit for Herrera, police found seven bullet casings. Six were from the same gun. A gun was found underneath Jon’Tavion. Testing revealed it didn’t fire any rounds.

Ethyn Leang and Francisco Herrera were arrested and face capital murder charges. Both were released from the Dallas County jail earlier this year after posting $50,000 bond, according to the sheriff’s office. They did not appear in court records.

“None of us saints,” Bowen said of her son and Jeriyous, “but for the most part, I can say they were loved and they knew how to show it.”

***

The boys had a joint funeral.

“They were always together,” Bowen said, “I wasn’t going to separate them.”

Jon’Tavion’s urn, a nearly 2-foot tall modernist Eternal Flame sculpted in Black aluminum, sits atop a curio cabinet in the corner. Half his ashes are here, the other half with his grandmother. Perched on a Vans shoe box next to it, a matching, miniature keepsake urn for Jeriyous.

“That’s crazy,” Williams teased.

“They chillin’ next to each other right now.”