GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — At the corner of Dallas and Fisk in Grand Rapids, a young man lost his life back in June. It was due to a crash near the intersection.
FOX 17 spoke to the mother of the young man, Michael Ruffin, who is sharing her story for the first time.
Michael Ruffin's brother and sister also spoke with FOX 17, right by his memorial.
“My little brother Michael, he was very joyful. We played a lot. Sometimes he got on my nerves, but that’s my baby. We argued sometimes. But that’s what brothers do. That was my baby. My right hand, since birth,” Kavion Woldemichael said about his brother.
“That was my best friend for real,” Michael's sister Mikiyah Ruffin said. “He was my best friend. Parter in crime,” she continued.
Michael Ruffin was 14 when he lost his life on June 26, 2024.
“He was still a kid,” mother Mijah Ramirez said.
Ramirez still remembers the day vividly. The power was out at her house from a storm knocking over trees. Mijah was at home for an appointment. She got a call from Michael's father's friend asking what Michael was wearing. She didn't understand why at first.
“I kept asking, 'Why do you want to know what Michael was wearing?' And he kept on saying, 'Man, man man.' And I’m like, 'Man, what?' And he was like, 'There’s a little boy laying in the middle of the street. Some kids got into a bad car accident, and one of them died,'” Ramirez said.
Mijah knew it was her son, when the caller described Michael's shoes.
"That’s when I knew it was Michael and, like, the shape of the body under the sheet,” Ramirez said.
Michael was ejected from a vehicle that's suspected of going too fast down a residential Grand Rapids street.
Mijah buried Michael. They had to have a closed casket. Mijah wants the other people in the car, who are also believed to be juveniles, held responsible.
“I do. I do. I do. I really do,“ Ramirez said.
Mijah says as time ticks on, her grief only grows.
“I have a lot of anger. And I don’t want to be angry. I haven’t been able to grieve, for real, because I’m so angry,” Mijah said.
Grand Rapids Police tell FOX 17 the crash investigation still remains very active.
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