Hoboken Boys And Girls Club Director Seeks Truth In Son's Slaying

HOBOKEN, NJ — Deloris Gibson, the director of the Boys and Girls Club of Hoboken, says she remembers finding out about her son's murder like it was yesterday.

“It was June 2, 2015, and at the Boys and Girls Club of Hoboken, where I am the director, we had all dressed in orange in recognition of Gun Violence Awareness Day," Gibson said Thursday. "Two days later, my son, Darcel Rivers, was shot to death.”

Darcel Rivers, 35 and a father of four, was visiting Jersey City that day from Rhode Island, where he was attending culinary school in hopes of becoming a chef.

Rivers was shot and killed a few steps from his mother’s house. Just after 3:45 a.m., Jersey City police received a 911 call of an unresponsive male lying on the sidewalk on Fulton Avenue, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office said this week.

Police and medical workers observed Rivers bleeding from his head from an apparent gunshot wound. At Jersey City Medical Center, he was pronounced dead at 4:15 a.m.

Now, Gibson and the Prosecutor's Office are asking the public for any leads in the death. Gibson says she needs to know.

“Darcel was a big clown – that was my clown – the way he would make me laugh," she said. "He was a good person and he loved to be around kids. He always wanted to be a chef, and that was one of his dreams he accomplished before he was taken from us. I am always going to proud of him.”

She added, “On Mother’s Day, he would always have to be the first to call at 4:30 a.m. He said, ‘I am the one that made you a mother, so I gotta be the first one to call you.' "

Rivers has four children, who were all young when he died: Zaire, now 18; Zyla, 10, Zakie, 8, and Zaria, 7.

“I want to tell whoever did this, ‘You took a very beloved father away from his kids,' " she said. "He enjoyed life. He would never take a life. The person who did this, how does that sit on your conscience?’”

“His kids need closure," she added, "So please just think about them. I am hoping someone out there who has information will have a heart and will do the right thing."

The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit is still investigating the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Office of the Hudson County Prosecutor at 201-915-1345 or to leave an anonymous tip at: http://www.hudsoncountyprosecu... . All information will be kept confidential.

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