NATCHEZ — Gregory Antoine Henderson was a young man trying to find his way in the world, his godmother says.

Wednesday night, that decision was made for him.

Henderson, known to his friends as Bird, was shot and killed, apparently in a dispute over drugs.

To his godmother Nan Parati, he would always be a smart, funny kid.

Henderson literally ran into Parati when he was 3 years old.

“I had a studio in an all-black neighborhood in New Orleans,” graphic designer Parati said. “He came running into my studio and ran into me. When he got up, he said, ‘You’re that lady who takes care of little children.’”

When Parati told him he was mistaken, he shook his head.

“He said, ‘Yes, you are. I just know it.’”

Henderson proved to be right. He, along with his brothers, all of whom lived down the street from Parati, became friends with her over the years.

“He was always a smart, smart kid. And funny,” Parati said. “I would say, ‘Do not wake me up. I work late.’ Every morning when he was a kid, he would bang on my window to wake me up.”

When Parati chided him for waking her, he would grin.

“He would say, ‘Oh, you’re asleep? I’m so sorry,’” she said.

Then, when Henderson reached his mid-teens, his mother died of cancer. Henderson took custody of him and became his foster mother.

School was a difficult obstacle for Henderson, Parati said.

“He was very, very smart,” she said. “He got into school and had difficulty reading. They threw him into special ed, which was the dumbest thing they could have done. So he got bored with school.”

Then, in the summer of 2005, everything changed.

Parati packed for a vacation in Massachusetts, and Henderson stayed home.

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Parati stayed in Massachusetts, and Henderson went to live with a brother in Texas.

Parati tried and tried to get Henderson to move up north with her and another of his brothers, but he was wary of such a huge change, she said.

“He always had a hard time figuring out what he should do,” she said. “He would call, and we would talk for hours and hours about what it’s like growing up.

“It’s really hard to come out of the streets and realize that you are a somebody. That is so hard.”

Henderson wouldn’t want his death to be misunderstood, Parati said.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “People might say he wasn’t up to any good.”

But in the past, even Parati had read him wrong, she said.

“It would drive him crazy if people thought he was up to no good,” she said. “So many times I would get angry with him, and when I would finally stop yelling at him, the truth turned out to be exactly the opposite of what I thought.”

For example, after Katrina, Parati came back to New Orleans to live for a short time. She wanted Henderson to come visit her and even sent money so he could.

“He took the money I sent for him and did something else with it,” she said. “I was so angry with him. What he didn’t want to tell me was that his cousin had been shot in New Orleans and he was afraid of being shot.”

Henderson was seriously considering moving to Massachusetts and starting a new life, Parati said.

“A place you know is more comfortable to live in,” Parati said. “It’s so much more comfortable to live in than all the wonderful possibilities out there. But he was so close.”