Christopher and Cameron Ervin flash wide, confident smiles in just about every picture of them found on social media.
But the Ervin brothers are now defined by the dazed, frightened expressions visible in their mug shots, taken Saturday after they allegedly tried to kill their parents at the family's Snellville home.
Gwinnett police arrived to find their mother, Yvonne Ervin, lying in bed, having been hit in the head several times with a rifle.
"They beat me up, they beat him up, they're trying to kill us," she told a 911 operator.
Her husband, Zachary Ervin, had been beaten and stabbed, and was bleeding profusely and barely coherent. He remains hospitalized in stable condition, a police spokesman said late Wednesday afternoon.
“I tried to kill my [expletive] parents,” Cameron Ervin, 17, told officers Saturday. “Who does that?”
For friends and family, the bigger question is why.
So far, answers have proven elusive. A family member, reached at the hospital where Zachary Ervin remains in stable condition from his injuries, declined comment.
Twanda Wadlington, who lives in Memphis wrote a nice tribute to her father on her puibic Facebook page a few weeks ago when he turned 50.
“Brilliance redefined, strength guaranteed and reliability unparalleled,” she wrote of Zachary Ervin. “Today is the right time for me to say, how grateful I am to you for always showing me the way.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to several friends of the brothers, none of whom wanted to discuss the shocking turn of events no one saw coming.
Christopher and Cameron Ervin have never been in trouble with the law before. Cameron graduated three months ago from Shiloh High School; Christopher, according to his LinkedIn page, was driving a forklift after leaving Georgia State University back in the spring. It was the third college he had attended.
The eldest brother, now 22, once cast a large shadow. He was a second-team all county lineman on Shiloh’s 2011 football team, but at 6’3 and 215 pounds, was a little undersized for big time college football play.
The Beta Club member signed to play with the University of Charleston in West Virginia but dropped out after one year, the school’s president, Edwin H. Welch, said in a statement.
A year later he enrolled at Valdosta State before going to GSU, working odd jobs as a retail associate at Spencer’s Gifts and, according to his LinkedIn bio, as an Abercrombie and Fitch model.
By all accounts the two brothers were close. But the alleged plot to murder their parents was not driven by the older sibling, say police.
“They were in 100 percent cahoots,” said Gwinnett Police Cpl. Deon Washington, who said the brothers have been cooperative with detectives.
Police have disclosed few details except to say they believe the brothers intended on covering up their parents’ death by starting a fire. A gas line at the home had been tampered with, detectives discovered.
Washington said Friday’s probable cause hearing for the Ervins will reveal plenty.
In the meantime, friends reflected back on better times.
Stephen Okala, a Shiloh teammate of Christopher Ervin’s, posted a picture of the football team on Facebook, captioned, “Life used be so much simpler back then. Know that you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers bro.”
Another friend, Dom Strong, of Lilburn, said on Facebook she was keeping an open mind
“We will never truly know why they did what they did,” she wrote. “So yall just stop with the negative comments cause it’s not helping their PRESENT situation. Just pray for OUR FRIEND SHILOH HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 2011!”
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