It was a day for hugs and celebration Tuesday for a San Leandro mother who got a call she had been waiting almost three decades to get.
Delores Stephens learned her son Darryl Lamar Reed will finally be coming home after President Barack Obama commuted his prison sentence.
"December 8, 1988, they arrested him," Stephens recalled.
Back then, Reed was a prominent drug dealer on the streets of Oakland, taking over for well known kingpin Felix Mitchell. When Mitchell was buried, Reed was 20 years old, and his son Lamar was about to be born.
"When you meet people in the community, and when he was young, all they talked about is how giving he was," Lamar Reed said about his father.
Darryl Reed had the money to give, making tens of thousands of dollars daily selling what was considered a new drug: crack cocaine.
On Tuesday, Obama granted clemency to a total of 111 people, providing a second chance to prisoners who have taken steps toward rehabilitation and who received sentences for nonviolent drug crimes.
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While serving his time, Reed has given back to the community, calling into community forums and telling young people not go down the wrong path.
"I think he feels it’s his responsibility to steer the young people of today in the right direction and do not make the same mistakes he made," Lamar Reed said. "He’s not living in the past; he's living in the now. He wants to fix the now and help this community get better."
Reed's family is hoping to celebrate the New Year with him.
