Posted on 04/18/2016 2:09:14 PM PDT by HomerBohn
(Video at link)
KNOXVILLE (WATE) – Just hours after attending celebrity basketball game in Zaevion Dobson’s honor, family says Dobson’s cousin was shot.
Knoxville Police Department said the shooting happened at around 9:46 p.m. at Danny Mayfield Park, located at 700 College Street. They said Jajuan Latham, 12, died after he was shot in the head.
A gathering of a large number of people was being held in the park when shooting erupted between the party attenders and occupants of two vehicles that were driving by the park, according to Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch. He said Jajuan Latham was shot while sitting in the back seat of his father’s parked vehicle. They are asking anyone with information on the shooting to call Knoxville Police Department’s crime information line at (865) 215-7212.
“We were at the celebrity basketball game and he had a good time and he was just more exciting to Bobby Maze than I was,” said Hubert Latham, Jajuan Latham’s father. “We went and had a good time and he was a good kid and they took my son’s life.”
Hubert Latham said they had pulled up to a park to pick up his son’s friends when he heard gunshots.
“The first thing I do is reach my son and I just realize he’s not moving, so I’m like, ‘What’s going on, is he asleep?,'” said Hubert Latham. “When I picked him up, that’s when I realized, what I seen, blood.”
(Watch a second video at link)
The father says he held his son’s stomach, rushing him to University of Tennessee Medical Center. Police said the 12-year-old died just after 11:00 p.m. from his injuries.
“I knew he was going to pull through. It broke my heart 30 minutes later when they came out and told me my son was dead. The only thing that came to my mind was, who did this?,” said Hubert Latham.
Saturday’s Bobby Maze Celebrity Basketball Game was Saturday night to encourage Knoxville youth to stop the violence. Four years ago he lost one of his close cousins to gun violence. After hearing of Zaevion’s story, he knew he had to help out. Jajuan Latham and Zaevion Dobson’s mother, Zenobia, were in attendance.
“I was devasted,” said former University of Tennessee basketball player Bobby Maze. “Just knowing that Jajuan was one of the first kids at the gym to come in to see this celebrity game and he was excited about this event and to hear about hours later or after the game he was killed, it really hurt me. The whole purpose of doing this event was to shed some light on some of the things that has been happening in this community… Zaevion and it’s just been a lot of gun violence…. so I wanted to bring something positive to this area and to find out a kid that participated and came out to support this event was killed after and 12-years-old. You know, it’s just sad.”
(Watch a third video at link)
Zaevion Dobson, a Fulton High School football player, died shielding three girls from bullets. Knoxville police believe the chain of events started on December 17 when Brandon Perry was involved in a shooting that served as a catalyst for three other shootings.
Police believe the incident prompted a shooting at Brandon Perry’s home where his mother was shot. After learning his mother was shot, investigators said Brandon and several additional suspects drove to Badgett Drive where they shot into a crowd. Perry was later shot and killed.
Thanks. I will.
You sound crass but you are also spot on, so crass away.
if it’s hateful, but it’s a fact, is called a hate fact?
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