In the wee small hours of the morning on Tuesday, September 30, Bryan "DJ Red X" Walker headed home after a routine night of DJing at KUSH Mediterranean Bar & Grill, where he held a residency.
While in bed with his fiance, Melissa Pruitt, he began having convulsions. After DJ Red X was whisked away to the hospital, Pruitt was approached by doctors. "I went in there. I could tell that the doctor had been crying, because the doctors are people," Pruitt said. "[The doctor] said, 'I tried. We tried everything.'"
DJ Red X, a beloved Dallas DJ and only 28 years old, passed away at 3:30 that morning. The cause of death was a heart attack. He is survived by his two daughters Makenna, 6, and Kennedy, 1.
The meet cute is as good as any. About a decade ago, during a sweltering summer day at Six Flags Over Texas, there's a teenage girl that catches a teenage boy's eye. He yells, trying to get the girl's attention: "Hey, girl in the pink hat!"
The girl hated that type of typical machismo and who can really blame her? But these are the wonder years; sometimes boys are a little rough around the edges.
The two worked at the Six Flags all summer and every chance the boy got, he would walk by where the girl worked, in the games area, and do something (usually goofy) to get noticed.
The story of how Pruitt and DJ Red X met, became friends and eventually parents with plans to get married reveals a common thread between how his friends and loved ones remember him: DJ Red X's gregarious nature and sense of humor are what most consider when describing him.
Despite the fact that DJ Red X was eight years her junior, he and his sister Daneshe Bethune had a close relationship. "Every time we used to see each other, we used to do the Kid N Play dance," she says, recalling his goofy nature. "Most people live in depressive states and don't really enjoy life," Bethune adds, "and he enjoyed life."
Last Monday, the night in which he held his residency, a few of DJ Red X's friends--Tezamasun, Goody Howard and Attah Essien-- took part in organizing an event at KUSH as a memorial for their friend. "This is what he would've wanted us to do because it's always a party to him," Goody says.
Colleagues played records in his honor, one of which was his mentor Jay*Clipp, who sold him his first Serato. "From that point going forward, it was no looking back," Jay*Clipp says. "He went hard as a DJ."
Friends came by the event to offer donations that will go to DJ Red X's daughters and Goody corralled people throughout the evening to offer up video testimonials for his children to watch when they grow older.
"They'll always hear about what type of partner he was from his family and their mom, but they won't be able to see the impact that he had on people who weren't related to him," Goody says, "We're not focusing on the loss. We're focusing on the legacy."
