In 2016, a hungry 15-year-old boy named Chauncy Black approached Matthew Michael White in a Kroger parking lot. Chauncy asked Matt if he could take his groceries to his car in exchange for a box of glazed donuts for dinner.
“Something told me to go there and ask this guy if I can take his groceries to the car,” Chauncy told WHBQ.
Matt later said he felt compelled to take the teen on a shopping spree in the grocery store.
When Matt dropped Chauncy off at his home in South Memphis, he was shocked by what he saw. Chauncy, his grandmother, whom he calls “mom”, lived in squalid conditions and Chuancy didn’t have a bed to sleep on.
Matt wrote about the encounter on his Facebook page and created a GoFundMe account. He described his chance meeting with the teenager as “God’s beautiful design.”
Within three months, donations to the GoFundMe account topped $342,000.
But Chauncy’s story doesn’t have a happy ending.
Chauncy, now 19, and his brother Timothy Black, 20, were arrested and charged with second-degree murder after one man was killed during a shootout in Cordova, Tennessee on Jan. 4.
They were also charged with tampering and fabricating evidence and reckless endangerment, according to Fox 13 Memphis.
According to an arrest affidavit, Chauncy and his brother told police a group of men drove to their house after an argument. One person in the car opened fire at the house.
Timothy and Chauncy ran inside the house, grabbed their firearms and fired back at the vehicle as it drove away at high speed.
26-year-old Kaleb Wakefield was hit by a stray bullet in a house across the street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Chauncy and Timothy then hid their guns, which they did not have permits to carry, according to WREG.
Jaylin Edwards, the shooter inside the vehicle and his brother Tyrek Edwards were arrested and charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon and gun possession.
Chauncy’s attorney, Ben Israel tells WREG that Chauncy did get most of the GoFundMe money after taxes were taken out.
“Some of the money was used to buy a home they stay in in Cordova,” said Israel. “Some of the money was used to purchase lawn equipment for a lawn service company that Chauncy was running until he was arrested.”
Israel is not sure how much of the money is left.
Chauncy’s family said he fell in the with the wrong crowd after his story went viral in 2016.
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