Lucretia Greer believes in the power of forgiveness. It has been 15 years since the tragic murder of her brother, Izim Kareem Greer-Plummer. Though she still gets choked up when she mentions Izim’s name, she has a message to any young man boiling over with rage: Stop and think before grabbing a gun.
This is what she hoped would have happened on Nov. 10, 2007. Lucretia had just had a conversation with her brother, who is two years her senior. She then went to bed. After she dozed off, a neighbor, John Bradley, shot 19-year-old Izim in the head shortly before 3 a.m. on Greenway Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. Bradley was arrested and charged with Izim’s murder.
“It is still unbelievable,” Lucretia said. “I can still hear the loud knocking at the front door. I could hear them saying my brother was shot. The next thing I knew, he was gone. Just like that my brother who I had just seen and talked to before I went to bed was gone.”
Izim was born on Nov. 16, 1987 to a large family in Southwest Philadelphia. He attended Joseph W. Catherine Elementary School, Tilden Middle School, and John Bartram High School. He was an aspiring rap artist who spent much of this free time devoted to the craft. When he wasn’t rapping, one could find him working alongside his father in the family’s moving and hauling business.
He also was an animal lover. Izim was known for rescuing stray animals, especially dogs. Consequently, there was usually at least one dog in the Greer family home.
“My parents taught us to keep so many values,” said Lucretia. “There are seven children in my family. They taught all of us to keep going, while thinking about others — not just always thinking about yourself. They taught us how to adjust, keep going, and not hurt anybody.
Recently, Lucretia had flashbacks of losing Izim when her other brother, Ameen Greer-Plummer, was murdered last year.
Lucretia also lost her mother in 2012, an uncle the year before that, and her father in 2021.
She cherishes memories of Izim walking with her to school.
“My brother was overly protective of me,” Lucretia said. “He would let everyone know that I was his sister and not to mess with me. If anyone tried to do anything to me, he would come to my defense.”
“He was popular in school and had a lot of friends,” she continued. “They all knew how outspoken he was. Yet he looked at everyone as being his friend. If you lived in the neighborhood, you were automatically his friend. He got that from my family because we treated our neighbors like they were family. Everyone knew he was protective of everyone, so it was just best to get out of his way,” she said.
One time, Lucretia tried to protect her brother from someone who was angry with him.
“My brother was agitated because he said he could protect himself,” she remembered. “He said that he understood I thought I wanted to help him, but he was my protector.”
Lucretia now lifts weights on a regular basis thanks to Izim. Back in 2007, she mentioned to her brother that she was thinking about working out. She hoped that her brother would possibly give her gym membership or allow her to use the makeshift gym in his bedroom.
“The next thing I knew my brother put his gym in my room…” Lucretia said. “Just like that he gifted it to me.”
Lucretia said she was surprised that her brother was murdered by someone local; Bradley lived on Saybrook Avenue near South 65th Street. With her brother’s gregarious personality, it felt like everyone in their community was part of his circle, Lucretia said.
“My dad always told us the importance of loving our neighbors,” she continued. “My mother welcomed all the children in the home. It came from my grandparents because they had an open house where if you came by at dinnertime you would eat. If you needed something you could get it. If you needed a place to sleep you could stay the night. We just loved and cared about people.”
“That is why it hurts so much to lose a brother who embodied our family values,” she added. “To think that he would be killed right in our own neighborhood, where we helped and reached out for others is unthinkable,” she said.
Before Izim’s death, the family had planned to do a big bash for his 20th birthday on November 16, 2007. Even though his funeral was scheduled for November 17, the family still held Izim’s birthday party at Ford’s Sports Bar, a neighborhood nightspot in Southwest Philadelphia.
“It seemed he just never had a big birthday bash because something always came up,” Lucretia said.
Lucretia’s daughter, Ny’Rhii, recently celebrated her first birthday. She wishes that her child could grow up knowing both her uncles.
“I often think of how Izim had my back,” she said. “If he was around, he would have my daughter’s back. He would be like another parent to her.”
Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
