In early 2012, military veteran Martinez Sutton was working in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry, and using his military benefits to pursue a college degree at Chicago State University. His goal was to become an occupational therapist in order to help other veterans thrive after military service.
March 21 changed everything for Sutton. That evening, Sutton's youngest sister, 22-year-old Rekia Boyd, was fatally shot when off-duty Chicago police detective Dante Servin opened fire on a group at Douglass Park on Chicago’s West Side. Servin claimed he saw a man in the group pull a gun, but police never recovered a weapon, and prosecutors said the man was holding a cell phone. Servin was charged with involuntary manslaughter and found not guilty in 2015.
After Boyd's death and through the ensuing investigation and trial, Sutton became a voice for justice, not only for his sister but for other families that have experienced similar loss. He seized opportunities to speak out about police violence in Chicago and participated in March2Justice: an eight-day, 250-mile march from Staten Island, New York, to the nation’s capital to demand congressional intervention to tackle the national crisis of police violence.
“As the case went on, I met so many families going through the same thing,” said Sutton. “People are telling me their story and I wanted to fight for them, advocate for them — to do what I believe a human is supposed to do.”
In the midst of his grief and his family’s struggles with the justice system, Sutton was twice accepted into occupational therapy education programs, but he did not feel prepared to attend, due to the trauma. He ultimately decided to change his career path and enrolled in a master’s program for clinical mental health counseling at Adler University. He graduated in 2018 and is currently pursuing his certification to become a licensed clinical professional counselor.
“Because of all that I had experienced, I wanted to learn how the mind works,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else to feel this trauma and stress, to feel depressed.”
Sutton feels a particular call to help people on Chicago’s South Side. He grew up at 62nd Street and Cottage Grove, just blocks from the University of Chicago Medicine's main campus. He has seen violence on the streets, drugs, and people struggling with their mental health. He advocated for a trauma center to serve the South Side before UChicago Medicine opened its Level I adult trauma center in 2018. When he learned about the Violence Recovery Program (VRP) specialist position, it seemed like a natural fit — though his past experience initially gave him pause.
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This story was first published by UChicago Medicine.
