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‘We’ll never forget Connor’: Rainier Beach football team honors murdered former player

SEATTLE — Exactly a year before he was killed, Connor Dassa-Holland got his angel’s wings.

“His first tattoo was wings, all the way from his back down to his lats and on his arms,” Alexander Dassa, Connor’s older brother, said. “We always say he had his wings going into Heaven.”

More than a year after Connor’s death, his murder remains a mystery. Connor was shot and killed outside of his family home. He died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

That’s about as far as the details go surrounding Connor’s death. No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, leaving many unanswered questions for his mother, Alicia Dassa.

“Reality hits you in a way you never expect because your child is ‘18-year-old male killed in Rainier Beach.’ He became a headline,” Alicia said. “I’m not ready to accept that’s all he was, or that’s what all the other kids [who] were killed here are. Because they’re not.”

Dassa has called for community action against shootings in Rainier Beach since the week of Connor’s fatal shooting. At Connor’s memorial in 2020, she told a crowd of about 300 people: “This is our community and we will not have it anymore. For the rest of our lives, we’re going to make sure that Conner’s death was not in vain.”

Since Connor’s death, shootings have increased across Seattle. There have been more than 100 additional shootings so far this year compared to this time last year, Seattle PD Interim Chief Adrian Diaz said on Tuesday.

“Justice for me is that (the shootings) stop. Justice for me is that no other parents or siblings or families have to go through what we go through everyday,” Alicia said.

In honor of Connor’s legacy, the Rainier High School Football team held a pregame ceremony in honor of the former team captain. The game was played in honor of Connor and many wore shirts, jerseys and masks with No. 70 (Connor’s jersey number playing center was 70).

“1, 2, 3 - Connor!” players yelled while breaking out from their pregame huddle.

Before the game, Rainer Beach High School Football head coach Corey Sampson spoke about his former player, who he described as someone who wasn’t afraid to be himself and “was always trying to be the party.”

“He led by example. He came and earned the kids respect. He was on time, the first one in and the last one to leave. He got along with everybody, helped everybody out and gave the shirt off his back,” Sampson said. “We’re never going to forget Connor. He was our captain.”

When asked how his players (which include some of Connor’s friends) were handling the emotions, Sampson said his team was handling it well. He also acknowledged the unfortunate nature of their calmness.

“It’s inner city. These guys know kids that have been killed before,” Sampson said. “But there isn’t a day we don’t think of (Connor).”

Sampson also said Dassa spoke to the team earlier this week, in what became an emotional moment between a grieving mother and a high school football squad remembering their lost teammate.

For Alicia and Alexander, they’ve come to appreciate their family motto in a new way: “let’s do this thing.”

“If we didn’t hear it, it was like something was wrong,” Alexander explained. “Let’s do this thing was most commonly used by Connor’s father, but the motto/phrase was heard at every family gathering: graduations, weddings, dance recitals (which were supposed to be silent), and, of course, football games.

The longer I sat with Alexander and Alicia in the same bleachers they used to watch Connor play, the more apparent their motivations and struggles became. While both acknowledge the intense pain they’ve felt since Connor was taken away, both also believe Connor would’ve wanted them to keep moving forward. It’s the same sentiment felt in ‘let’s do this thing’ - to keep pushing forward and do what you have to do to progress.

“We ask ourselves, would Connor be proud of us? And that’s what keeps us going,” Alexander said.

Rainier Beach High School would go on to win its first game over Mount Tahoma on Saturday.