Community mourns teen killed in deadly Benton Harbor shooting

BENTON HARBOR, Mich - An 18-year-old lost his life in a fatal shooting Wednesday night. Family members identified the teen as 18-year-old Richard Perry.

The shooting happened around 8 p.m. in the 700th block of Colfax between Clay and Harrison, where police found the victim's in an alleyway.

This act of gun violence involving another teenager hits the city of Benton Harbor just as school lets out for the summer.

Perry was 16 when he pleaded guilty to second degree murder for providing the gun in another 2021 deadly shooting involving local teenagers.

Perry’s cousin, Cierra Clay, is heartbroken by what happened.

“God will have to deal with you, you know what I'm saying, like this is going to be a troubling time for our family, but we are strong, we going to get through this, I just don’t, we just don’t want nobody else to go through this,” said Clay.

This shooting comes just after the annual Peace March, where students from Benton Harbor High School joined forces against gun violence during the summer months.

Benton Harbor High School baseball coach, Danny Jennings, was part of that march, and wants to see young people make different choices, instead of reaching for a weapon.

“We like to disagree by expressing some sort of act, physically, violently, and we have to get better coping mechanisms and how we deal with people when we don’t agree with them,” said Jennings.

Henry Clark Sr., who's lived in Benton Harbor since 1975 and whose own sister was shot killed back in 2001, is all too familiar with the tragedy of gun violence.

“I come from out of town for this and I see that a friend of mine has passed away during the shooting. It's getting out of hand, but we really don’t have nothing around here for the kids to do, but you see this music, that’s the glamorous life and nobody wants to sit down and talk anymore, it's all about violence,” said Clark.

As of now, police said an autopsy is being performed to confirm the exact cause of death but so far, no suspect information has been released.

If you do know anything you are urged to contact Benton Harbor police.