ALBANY, N.Y.--The mother of an Albany teen stabbed to death, is calling for calm Friday night, just hours after jurors convicted one of two teens charged in the killing.
Dhoruba Shuaib was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Tyler Rhodes Friday afternoon.
Cell phone video of the moments leading up to the stabbing was used during Shuaib's trial and has now become public.
NEWS10's Taryn Fitsik sat down with Rhodes' mother Friday evening, who calls the video a double-edged sword.
"I'm still numb, I really am," says Stacey Rhodes.
Rhodes says watching the video in court was extremely difficult, video that shows her 17-year-old son Tyler at the center of a fight in Hoffman Park in Albany.
The other teen police say is Jah-Lah Vanderhorst, charged with second degree murder, after brandishing a knife and eventually stabbing him.
Rhodes ran and then collapsed.
"It helped bring justice for my son, but I had to keep living it over and over again," says Rhodes.
Rhodes described her last words with her son half an hour before the stabbing.
"He said I'll be home before curfew, I'll make sure the house is clean and my laundry is done," says Rhodes. "I said alright, I love you, he said I love you too, and then at 7 o'clock I got the worst phone call of my life."
Dhoruba Shuaib is the teen standing next to Rhodes during much of the video, a key point of the prosecution's case was the claim that Shuaib assisted in the murder by boxing Rhodes in, weakening his position.
Shuaib is now facing 25 years in prison.
Rhodes' mother says two families really have lost a child, and she wants it to end there.
"I don't want any retaliation against those kids in the video," says Rhodes. "Tyler was against it, he wouldn't want that."
Rhodes points to her son's ashes, his Albany High School track uniform and his running shoes, now all displayed in her living room.
"That is all we really have, that is all we have left," says Rhodes. "That and memories."
Rhodes worries that because the video became viral, other kids shown in it could become future targets of violence.
All she asks for is peace in honor of her son, and everything her family has lost.
"I don't want retaliation," she says. "I don't want it, it's not worth it. It's in God's hands."
The trial for Jah-Lah Vanderhorst is set to begin in March.
Tyler Rhodes
Dhoruba A. Shauib
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