Poplar victim remembered as ‘great man’

Duran Jackson’s life flashed too briefly.

His mother, Leslie Jackson, said he was born at the time the Great Comet of 1997 spectacularly streaked through the sky.

Leslie bought him a National Geographic book about space as a result and told him “all his life, he would be a great man,” she remembered in a telephone interview Saturday morning.

Duran, 19, died Friday morning in Poplar as he stepped in to protect a friend from a knife-wielding man, Leslie said. Authorities say they have opened a murder investigation and have a suspect in custody but have confirmed nothing else.

Even though Duran’s life wasn’t long enough, Leslie said her youngest son still turned out to be a great man.

“He always stood up for the underdog and that was what he was doing (when he died),” Leslie said.

Duran was outside the Buckhorn Bar and Café around 2 a.m. Friday when a man tried to stab another, and Duran stepped in.

At least that is Leslie’s understanding after talking to people who were there.

Authorities have told her nothing.

Leslie’s understanding is that Duran was stabbed twice in the neck and three times in the torso, but she has not been able to confirm that officially.

“We are indeed working a murder case on the Fort Peck Reservation,” Ken Trottier Jr., supervisory criminal investigator with the Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice, said Friday. “The Fort Peck Tribes and the FBI are working a murder case on the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana. I cannot release anything else.”

A suspect is in custody, but authorities are not naming him.

“We can’t give the name of the suspect until charges have actually been filed,” said Melissa Hornbein, U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman.

In fact, they have not released the name of Duran.

“We can’t give the name of the victim due to concerns about victim privacy,” Hornbein said. “We just simply can’t give that information out at present.”

It seems surreal, Leslie said.

“My heart won’t let me believe it,” she said. “It just comes in waves. I’m trying to do stuff to keep busy and then it hits me, and I almost fall over it’s so sad.”

Duran, who was born April 4, 1997, graduated from Poplar High School in 2014, a year early. “He’s really smart,” Leslie said.

He joined the Montana Army National Guard in Glasgow and served in South Carolina upon completing basic training. He had been back in Poplar since fall 2015, Leslie said, doing weekend drills and working a few jobs, including most recently as a ranch hand.

Leslie said she arrived at the Poplar Community Hospital as soon as she could after learning about the incident.

A doctor told her that medical staff members worked on him for about 50 minutes but could not save him.

Leslie then wanted “to say goodbye” and authorities told her she would get a chance.

She said she waited for about an hour until somebody finally told her that law enforcement took Duran’s body to Billings “without saying a word.”

She still had not heard from law enforcement as of late Saturday morning.

“He was great,” Leslie said. “Ask anybody in town, and they’ll tell you that.”

She added, “He liked to talk, loved to talk to people and everybody loved him. He worked hard.”

He is survived by older siblings C.J. Colon and Olivia Headdress, his newborn son, Alexander Mychael Hopkins Jackson, and girlfriend Bobbie Hopkins.

A memorial service will be held Wednesday evening at the Cultural Center in Poplar with a burial ceremony and funeral at Box Elder Cemetery about five miles northwest of Poplar on Thursday, Leslie said.

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Leslie said. “Everything happens for a reason. … But I’m mad. I’m mad they took him too early.”