Annie Frayar (l.) , with her mom, Christine Fryar, was killed, allegedly by her ex-con half brother, Steven Murray.
Peace. Thats what Annie Fryar, at age 13, wanted . Peace on the streets. Peace at school. Peace at home in the projects at the Polo Grounds, where Babe Ruth once played, and where police say she was killed by her half brother Steven Murray on Monday night.
In some photographs, Annie has a smile as wide and bright as the horizon. But look deep in another photo her eyes are sad.
Her mother, Christine, who survived the shooting rampage, and Murray, 28, had been fighting so much in the three weeks since hed come back from two years down South. There was so much hate that Murray could shoot his own blood. His own mother would call him an animal.
Annie hadnt run away from the conflict. She told her friends she wanted to get back to her apartment precisely because she knew they would be fighting. She wanted to make peace. Annie was good at that.
At Public School 46 on Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem, Annie was named a peer mediator. She already had the temperament and the maturity to help resolve conflicts among her fellow students.
She was a very nice person, said fellow seventh-grader Natalie. She was always a hands-out girl. She would talk to people, even if she didnt know them.
She was my friend, said another student, Terrell, in front of a mural at the school that said, We are striving for excellence.< /p>
She was a great friend.
A fight would start, and Annie would be asked to sit between the combatants and guide them toward what educators call a win-win situation. Dealing with bullies. Or jealous types. Kids with anger issues. Get them to say how they feel. And to listen to how the other kid feels. Sharing her emotional intelligence. As important as social studies, where the curriculum just seems to go from war to war. Annie steered them away from the blame game, and kids who started out hating on each other ended up becoming friends.
She helped the kids talk the conflict out, said Annies fellow peer mediator LeYanna, 12. She helped people solve their problems. She knew what she was doing. She really cared about other people.
Annie probably wanted to solve the conflict in her family most of all. She was good at peacemaking. Who know what she might have become? A diplomat? A psychiatrist? A great mother? Well never know. Because her own brother solved his conflicts with 22-mm. bullets.
With Jennifer H. Cunningham
P eace. Thats what Annie Fryar, at age 13, wanted . Peace on the streets. Peace at school. Peace at home in the projects at the Polo Grounds, where Babe Ruth once played, and where police say she was killed by her half brother Steven Murray on Monday night.
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