A 17-year-old city teen shot dead after he got the better of a rival in their street fistfight, attracted fond memories Friday as relatives remembered a young man in search of his path in life. “I was 11 years older than Dante but he acted like a big brother. He was so protective of me, and the man of the house in his grandmother’s home,” remembered Zoë Leverett, his sister. “Plus, he loved music, was a good rapper and even enjoyed painting. In fact, since I paint, too, we had hoped to collaborate on some creations. Of course, that’s not going to happen now.” Dante Leverett on his prom night. (Submitted photo)Dante Leverett who had an artist alias of TaeBreezo loved painting, music and smelling good. (Submitted photo)Dante Leverett who had an artist alias of TaeBreezo loved painting, music and smelling good. (Submitted photo)Dante Leverett who had an artist alias of TaeBreezo loved painting, music and smelling good. (Submitted photo)Show Caption1 of 4Dante Leverett on his prom night. (Submitted photo)Expand Named officially Opium Leverett by his mother, family members and the teen had abandoned his forename early on. His mother, racked with emotional challenges, had made a similar disconnect. “We never made it official but everyone knew my grandson as Dante,” explained Patricia Leverett, who became his guardian when he turned three. “Dante never knew his father, none of us could say for sure who he was. Finding out his identity had been a longing for Dante.” “As a child,” recalled Patricia, “Dante would say, ‘I want to know who my father is.’ It hurts a boy to not know his father and to not have his mother in his life.” Patricia Leverett, in a conversation that swirled with flashes of good moments in Dante’s life, seemed trapped inside a windy booth as she snatched memory notes out of thin air. A summation of his good qualities and characteristics noted. “He played Pop Warner football. Baseball. Liked girls. And girls liked him. Oh, and Dante loved to smell good. He always wanted cologne from Macy’s,” she said. Patricia stopped her exhaustive good times memory train with a hard truth. “Dante was no angel. No guns or gangs. But he got into trouble when he stole a car. He spent some time in juvenile corrections facilities. And, oh, yes, Dante could fight,” she said. Zoë recalled a passionate brother filled with typical teenage angst. A text message offered these insights. “Dante marched to the beat of his own drum. He was courageous. He was loving. He was very passionate and he had a lot of feelings bottled up in him in just the 17 years of life. He definitely was a problem out there. You know, I’m sure he had plenty of girlfriends cause they’re calling and, he had a couple of guys that were cool with him too. He was not fearful. He could fight. In fact, it was literally a coward who took him out….. Dante could physically defend himself. He did not need to use guns,” Zoë wrote. But Dante wanted a gun, needed a gun in a street world spinning out of control. Black males under the age of 18 are 14.5 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than their white male peers. “Dante frequently said he wanted a gun because things were changing out there, that boys who lost fistfights settled differences with guns,” Patricia Leverett explained. Dante Leverett had experienced loss in May 2024 when a gunman shot and killed his best friend, Stephon Fisher, 18, at the notorious Kingsbury Towers. Fisher and Leverett had formed a unique bond as black binary stars, turning together in a world seemingly out of control. “Dante fell apart when Stephon got killed. One can only imagine how a person feels, especially this young man, when your best friend is shot and killed. Dante suffered a traumatic experience,” offered Joseph Halsey, founder of JRH Foundation of the Arts which teaches students independent filmmaking from conception to completion. Plus, opportunities exist to learn about photography and videography. The Hamilton-based organization which shares a building with Camp Fire NJ and Big Brothers Big Sisters Mercer County, also receives teens involved with the Juvenile Justice Commission. Dante Leverett had fulfilled a court-mandated probationary period at JRH. “I met Dante three years ago,” recalled Halsey. “He made an immediate impression and over time, it was easy to see the light in him. Dante could light up a room. He was always respectful. Yes, he had a toughness to him, a little thug in him, but people were attracted to him.  Even after he had completed his service here, Dante still came. He felt at home here. Loved here. Safe here.” Yet, Halsey understands that a furious world exists outside the walls of Homedell School that houses his organization, a place where fisticuffs loses out to hard bullets. Remarkably, Halsey guided production of a 2023 film by seven13films entitled I’ve Been Shot, a documentary on gun violence and awareness that includes gun violence survivors. On Sunday, September 22, just two months after birthday No. 17, Dante Leverett stepped toward an opponent to deliver a beatdown. In the past, scores were settled with fists and fighters returned to their respective street corners and homes afterward — living to fight another day. According to persons familiar with the incident, Leverett had sense enough to run when his assailant pulled a gun. He died an hour after being shot in the back.