Derek Ali, 47, Was Working as Disc Jockey
Derek Ali, a reporter at Ohio’s Dayton Daily News and a past president of the Dayton Association of Black Journalists, was killed Sunday morning as he was working as a disc jockey at a private party, according to Dayton news reports.
Ali, 47, a reporter at the paper since 1984, was pushing a woman away from gunfire.
He “was moving his DJ equipment to his car at about 1 a.m. A group of men denied entry became angry and at least one opened fire spraying the building, Dayton Police Sgt. Gary White said,” the Daily News reported.
“Mr. Ali pushed the woman out of the way and was shot in the chest, dying at the scene, White said.”
“Ali was a well-known journalist, covering the Dayton city beat for many years. He also contributed music reviews to the paper. Investigators said it was that love of music that engaged him in a sideline business of deejaying parties and private events. It was in that role that he was shot and killed,” reported WHIO-TV .
“It’s hard to believe,” said Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, who talked with Mr. Ali as he was DJ’ing Saturday at the Neighbor-To-Neighbor Street Festival at College Hill Park,” continued the Daily News story by Cathy Mong and Lou Grieco.
“We have to take back our city,” she said in the story. “People, not just city leaders, have to rise up and say enough is enough. The police need our help. The days of people standing behind their doors, saying, ‘I don’t want to get involved,’ are over.”
Trotwood, Ohio, Mayor Donald K. McLaurin was quoted as saying, “I don’t know what’s going on in our world that African-Americans are being gunned down for no reason. It’s just terrible to have to deal with this.” Ali lived in Trotwood.
“Derek was a man of the people,” wrote Dale Huffman in a separate commentary.
“He knew and could be in touch with those in the community who are of influence. Yet we best remember his ability to mix with the everyday folks who are the backbone and heart and soul of Dayton.”
Ali served several years as adjunct adviser for the Tiger Times, a student newspaper at Stivers School for the Arts, where his daughter attended, mentoring students interested in journalism, the story said.
Ali was a charter, executive board member and past president of the Dayton Association of Black Journalists.
In a 1995 edition of the NABJ Journal was this report from the Dayton chapter:
“Dayton Association of Black Journalists held a ‘Meet the Black Media Night’ at Spunky’s Night Club. People in the community got to meet and talk with DABJ members. ‘We felt it was a way to show them that we’re human and part of the struggle as well,’ said DABJ president Derek Ali, a reporter for the Dayton Daily News. The group also hopes to initiate joint projects with Central State and Wilberforce universities as well.”
A native of Philadelphia, Ali graduated from Camden High School and Glassboro State College in New Jersey. He was hired by Dayton Newspapers in 1984 as an Action Line Reporter and later became a regional reporter, according to the story.
It was the second tragedy at the paper in just over 48 hours. Daily News Editor Jeff Bruce noted in his own column that, “Editor Jeff Adams, online operations editor for the newspaper’s Web site, DaytonDailyNews.com, was setting up his video equipment Thursday in Springfield before a midnight campaign rally by Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards.
“Witnesses reported that he collapsed suddenly, and efforts by medics, already on the scene, were futile. He was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital, the victim of an apparent heart attack.” Adams was 50. It was at the visitation for Adams’ funeral where many of Ali’s co-workers learned of the killing, WHIO-TV said.
