Kitrell walks west on Mill Road toward the southbound bus stop on 60th, pushing his 9-month-old son ahead of him.
Kitrell grew up near 46th and Burleigh but he didn’t go to school around there; he didn’t really go to school at all, he says. Why not? “I don’t know. Just cause I was…I used to work around the streets.”
Influenced by those closest to him, he was immersed in street life at a young age. “Guess I was following my big brother,” says Kitrell. “I was really young. I was around 12, 11.”
With an expressionless look, he explains one of his two brothers – both older – has spent a lot of time behind bars, recently. “He did six years. He had just got out but around February he got locked right back up, like, two weeks later so, now, he’s gotta do another year.”
But Kitrell’s eyes light up when I ask about his son. He also has a daughter who’s 3. What’s it like, for him, to be a father? “It’s amazing. I love being a dad; both of my kids are a blessing.”
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