Timothy Thomas' brother says he has grown to respect police and their role in the community

CINCINNATI - The death of Timothy Thomas 10 years ago not only sparked unrest in the city, but also left a mother without her son, siblings without their brother, and a baby without his father.

Since then, Timothy's mother has relocated to Chicago, but his son and two of his siblings still call the Queen City home.

Thomas' younger brother, Terry Thomas, now spends a lot of his time producing songs for his record label Beasty Boi Records in his basement studio in Roselawn.

He was 16 when his brother was killed.

"That was like my only older figure that was a male. Everybody else was just people I was meeting. I never met my dad for real. I didn't have him to look on so my brother was like it when we were kids," Terry Thomas said.

He says he felt lost after his brother's death.

"I went down every bad hole I could go down first. Drugs, robbery, jail, everything that you could think of pretty much."

Terry and his sister, Brandee Bagby, continue to call Cincinnati home, even though their mother chose to move back to Chicago about five years ago.

Brandee says they think about Tim a lot when they get together.

"We all still miss him. You know we still have our reminiscence sessions or our talks and what not. I keep plenty of pictures. I still have the actual news articles and everything. We all still try to stand the way we were even though we lost one," Bagby said.

Since their brother's death Terry and Brandee both say they've had good and bad experiences with police.

"We've had officers that are rude and bitter toward us and we've had some that are really nice, so you can't judge everybody the same way," Bagby said.

"There are some out there that are good. They're cool enough to work with, but then you got your ones where they can't stand the sight of you. I stay away from those kind. And I embrace the ones that are willing to help," Terry Thomas said.

The siblings say for a while, many family members couldn't stand the sight of a police officer.

After all their 19-year-old brother, who was unarmed, but decided to run when he saw a police officer in the early morning hours of April 7, 2001, was shot and killed by another Cincinnati police officer in a dark alley of Over-the-Rhine.

Terry says he started to look at police and life differently when two friends were robbed right in front of him.

He says age, becoming a husband, and father to three kids have changed his perspective.

"Police are still useful. If my kid was walking on the street and a guy snatched him up, it's not a guarantee I'm going to be able to find that person, but the police have...the gadgets. They have everything they need to find my child, so yeah you do need them around," Terry said.

On many Sundays you will find Terry in church at First Christian Assembly of God with his children and Timothy's only child, 10-year-old Tywon Thomas.

He says the family hasn't shared all the details surrounding Timothy's death with his son.

He says they're focusing on making sure he and his cousins are raised to be good citizens of Cincinnati.

Terry said when he visited the church several years ago, he had no idea the church had declared a new mission of being racially reconciled in part to help the city heal from its racial tensions since his brother's death.

Terry says he doesn't have any bitter feelings toward Officer Stephen Roach for shooting and killing his brother.

Terry says he prays with church leaders that what is happening inside the church, people of different races getting along and worshipping together, will spread outside the doors of the church and onto city streets of Cincinnati.

"This church has everything you need. My kids can come and have fun. My wife can come and have fun. We have people we can connect with that are from different backgrounds. Everybody lives their own life. Everybody has their own problems, their own situations, but we've all come here to throw that away and just rejoice together. That's the part I love the most because I want to make sure at the end of the day we're going up top," Terry explained.

Terry says he's learned over the years that not everyone is willing to change, but starting the conversation can begin with just one person.

"As long as you get one or two you are good because that's a start. They can tell somebody else and that one to two people can change the four to eight you know," says Terry.