A well-known community advocate in Syracuse is stepping in to help, a week after a 12-year-old boy was arrested and accused of robbing Juli Boeheim at gunpoint outside of Destiny USA.

Mary Nelson, president and CEO of the Mary Nelson Youth Center, is no stranger to helping young people within the community, and has reached out to the boy to help.

Nelson's youth center includes an after-school program, school supplies supported by community drives and donations, and food giveaways for local families, among other initiatives. When she heard that the child accused in the Destiny USA robbery had just turned 12, she said she knew she had to step in and help. She attended the boy's virtual court appearance and was able to speak with him.

What You Need To Know

  • Juli Boeheim was robbed at gunpoint at Destiny USA on March 1

  • A week later, a 12-year-old Syracuse boy was accused in the case

  • Mary Nelson, president and CEO of the Mary Nelson Youth Center is assisting the child and his father with educational support and resources to get back on track

“I said ‘I want to see how I can help this child,’" she said.

Nelson said while what the boy did was wrong, when she went to meet him in person she saw a child who wanted help, and she felt he was willing to put in the work if he could stay in school and out of trouble.

“When they get the mentality that the streets love them more than the community or their parents — that’s a problem," she said. "He said to me, ‘You said that you care about me and you love me, can I have a hug?’ He remembered the words that I said to him.”

Nelson now plans to provide the child and his father with support to get on track, just like she has for so many others who have come through the center; keeping tabs on his schoolwork and attendance while providing after school resources.

“I FaceTime him every day. I tell his dad if I can’t get to the house, I’m going to FaceTime him, because I want to see what’s going on,” said Nelson.

Nelson said the Boeheims have donated generously to the center, which in part went toward the construction of a room with computers and other educational equipment for students. Nelson and Juli Boeheim keep in touch, and when they spoke soon after the robbery, Boeheim told Nelson that she, too, wanted to play a part in helping the boy.  

“The first thing she said was, 'I want to help. Mary, I want to help,'” she recalled of a conversation soon after the robbery.  

Of the boy who she says has been the subject of so much speculation and so much anger on social media over the past week, she reiterates that the crime he is accused of is wrong, no matter the victim.

“I believe everything you do and ever decision you make, good bad or indifferent, has a consequence with it,” said Nelson.

That said, she is encouraging others to handle him and kids in similar situations with the goal of being a positive force, and overpowering the negative influences that she says often push them to make poor choices.

“If you see a 12-year-old kid walking down the street in the middle of the day when he should be in school, engage in a conversation," she said. "Show compassion and show love, because they’re still our kids, no matter what color they are, they’re still our kids."