Tech Worker, a Role Model, Is Mourned at Funeral
By Aaron C. Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2008
More than 500 people gathered yesterday to say goodbye to Sean Nicholas Green and to try to reconcile a life and death they said didn't seem to match.
Most could not.
Green, 31, was a role model who kept his eight young nephews in line, a trusted national-security worker and a self-described "square" who didn't like hip-hop. Yet Green died a street death so violent it has shaken the most grizzled Prince George's County homicide detectives.
For reasons that remain a mystery, police say, Green was slain Nov. 12, shot nine times by a masked gunman as he sat in his car at a red light off the Capital Beltway near Oxon Hill at rush hour.
Yesterday, friends, family and co-workers said they could only trust in God that Green was in a better place and that someday they would be able to make sense of his death.
"Even though we've witnessed something like this," yelled the Rev. Darryl Walker at the peak of an emotional, two-hour funeral, "we do not, we cannot, lose heart."
The service at Turner Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in Hyattsville began with more than 60 men, many of them Green's fellow members of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, standing and singing in unison. As the pews and balcony quickly filled, Walker said the sea of hundreds was a testament to how Green had touched people at every phase of his short life, and in circles that intertwined across the Washington region.
Green grew up in Prince George's, attending Gwynn Park middle and high schools, where his family said he became enamored with computers through a county math and science program.
In his 20s, he worked in the District as a tech coordinator for Garnet-Patterson Middle School and Terrell Junior High School. After attending Frostburg State University and receiving a bachelor of science degree last year from the University of Maryland, Green began working for BEA Systems as a contract tech-support employee with top-secret security clearance at the National Counterterrorism Center in Tysons Corner.
Green kept classified information flowing and critical computer systems humming, his supervisor said. Co-workers said that during breaks, Green could be found outside reading his Bible.
Michael E. Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, sent a lengthy message read aloud at the funeral that praised Green as an exceptional employee whose "cheerful spirit will be missed dearly."
"Sean understood how his critical work contributed to the success of our mission and he strove to do his very best each and every day," Leiter wrote. "His important work at this center has helped to keep our country safe."
A statement read from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty also praised his service to the District.
The warm picture relatives painted of Green's family life, however, seemed at odds with the way he died.
His aunts said Green took his eight nephews and niece to get haircuts, and he watched over them, breaking up fights and faithfully attending every one of their football games. With eight boys, the family said, it had become an all-day affair for Green every Saturday.
"He never missed one of their birthday celebrations, school plays nor any other event that would bring them honor or distinction," his mother, Carolyn, wrote in a statement.
Prince George's police have said little publicly about Green's death, although Acting Chief Roberto Hylton said at a news conference last week that it is one of the most troubling unsolved homicides in the county this year. Green was shot at 5:31 p.m. coming from Virginia Lane to St. Barnabas Road as he left his apartment complex.
Maj. Gary Cunningham, commander of District 4, where the shooting occurred, said that the shooting appeared "personal" and that detectives are pursuing every possible lead and theory, including whether the gunman intended to target someone else. Cunningham said another resident in Green's apartment complex drives a black Cadillac DeVille similar to Green's. "We have to look into that possibility, but we also have to look at other things," Cunningham said.
Maj. Daniel Dusseau, head of major crimes for the county, said a couple of witnesses have come forward, but he added that he thinks more drivers must have seen the shooting.
"We need every scrap. You don't know if you're holding on to the one piece that could help us," Dusseau said.
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