Posted on 05/03/2012 7:30:57 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
The mother of a 13-year-old boy fatally shot when police say he tried to rob a couple said she is in shock that her son is dead -- and even more so at the circumstances surrounding his death.
"I don't want it put out like he was a bad person or a mean person, because he wasn't," Latonya Walker, 38, said Tuesday. "This is not him, not who he was. Anybody that knew Ja'Quares knows that."
Birmingham police said Ja'Quares Cortez Walker was in a car that pulled into the parking lot of the gated Skyview Condominiums at 407 Skyview Drive shortly after 11 p.m. Friday. The condo is off Robert Jemison Drive in southwest Birmingham.
Wearing a gray shirt around his face like a bandana and armed with a loaded and cocked pistol, authorities said Ja'Quares approached a black Lexus SUV with a couple inside and ordered the driver out. The driver pulled a gun and shot Ja'Quares multiple times.
The driver's name has not been released.
Police officials on Tuesday said the case remains under investigation. Once their probe is complete, they will present their findings to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office to determine whether charges will be filed.
District Attorney Brandon Falls said he has been told that police will present the case to him no later than Thursday.
Police released no information on the Friday incident until late Monday, until then saying only that an "unclassified shooting death" had occurred.
Police Chief A.C. Roper on Tuesday said police are still investigating.
"We questioned all the people we needed to question in relation to the incident," he said.
Police still are looking for the people who were accompanying Ja'Quares on Friday night, "but no one has been arrested," said Sgt. Johnny Williams Jr., spokesman for the Birmingham Police Department.
The shooter, Williams said, talked to investigators at the scene, and he voluntarily went to the Birmingham Police headquarters.
Latonya Walker said her son, who school officials confirmed was the quarterback on the football team at Martha Gaskins Middle School, was home about 9 p.m. Friday. She said he was visiting with two of his friends and one of his brothers in the front yard of the east Birmingham home where Ja'Quares lived with his parents, two brothers and a sister.
A red Chevrolet Trail Blazer pulled up to the group of young men. Latonya Walker said she yelled out to her son and asked who was in the car. He replied that it was one of his friends and the friend's uncle, and then got in the vehicle with them.
"Mom, we're just going to the store, and we'll be right back," his mother recalled him saying. It wasn't long, she said, before she began to worry. She said she called everyone she could think of, but had no success finding her son. She said he did not have a cellphone.
"It's not like him to go anywhere and not tell me," she said.
After several hours, Latonya Walker said she called Birmingham police and reported her son missing. She said she paced the house throughout the night, and still no word came.
"It was a real rough day," she said. "I knew something wasn't right."
It wasn't until about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, she said, that a Birmingham police detective called her and asked her if she had reported her son missing.
When she said yes, he asked her to meet him and look at a photo of a youth shot to death the previous night.
Police have said they were not able to identify Ja'Quares until Saturday.
Latonya Walker said the account of her son's death doesn't make sense to her. "He got fussed at like all kids do, but he was a real respectful child," she said. "Every day was a happy day for us."
She said she just wants to know the truth.
"Even if he did this, someone had to put him up to it. Why else would 16- and 17-year-olds want to hang out with a 13-year-old boy?" she said. "It's not the way he was raised."
She said her heart is heavy, and she's still not sure everything has hit her yet.
"It's like he's still here, and I feel him holding me up," she said. "All I can do is pray, and know God was ready to take his angel."
I'm sure the couple in the car felt him holding them up too ... albeit briefly.
Skin tone of shooter not described. I hope this does not turn into another Trayvon Martin case.
With a name like Ja'Quares, the kid was marked for thugdom from the start.
And the mom -- yelling from the house does not constitute watching your children and knowing where they are going and with whom. If you don't know the people that just rolled up to take your *13* year old kid somewhere, get your ass out to the curb and find out. Sheesh.
Older gang bangers use younger gang bangers all the time to commit crimes.
“”I don’t want it put out like he was a bad person or a mean person, because he wasn’t,” Latonya Walker, 38, said Tuesday. “This is not him, not who he was. “
“Wearing a gray shirt around his face like a bandana and armed with a loaded and cocked pistol, authorities said Ja’Quares approached a black Lexus SUV with a couple inside and ordered the driver out. “
Okie dokie
Guess what, sunshine? Accosting people, threatening them with a deadly weapon, demanding that they surrender their property ... these things qualify your precious angel as a bad person and a mean person.
Time to face reality.
Pls confirm?
“Skin tone of shooter not described”
Is there really any doubt?
And yeah, with a name like “Ja’Quares” she pretty much set his life path for him.
I just hope the Lexus driver makes out OK.
I just can't imagine why they didn't use this photo?
Felony murder... if they can figure out who the accomplices were. They aren’t going to be volunteering.
Probably right.
Gang initiation.
That’s probably true. Most states have some kind of felony murder statute which allows for a murder charge if a death is caused in the commission of a felony, even if it was one of the criminals who dies.
Sounds like gang initiation.
Section 13A-6-2
Murder.
(a) A person commits the crime of murder if he or she does any of the following:
(1) With intent to cause the death of another person, he or she causes the death of that person or of another person.
(2) Under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, he or she recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person other than himself or herself, and thereby causes the death of another person.
(3) He or she commits or attempts to commit arson in the first degree, burglary in the first or second degree, escape in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree, rape in the first degree, robbery in any degree, sodomy in the first degree, any other felony clearly dangerous to human life and, in the course of and in furtherance of the crime that he or she is committing or attempting to commit, or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant if there be any, causes the death of any person.
(4) He or she commits the crime of arson and a qualified governmental or volunteer firefighter or other public safety officer dies while performing his or her duty resulting from the arson.
(b) A person does not commit murder under subdivisions (a)(1) or (a)(2) of this section if he or she was moved to act by a sudden heat of passion caused by provocation recognized by law, and before there had been a reasonable time for the passion to cool and for reason to reassert itself. The burden of injecting the issue of killing under legal provocation is on the defendant, but this does not shift the burden of proof. This subsection does not apply to a prosecution for, or preclude a conviction of, manslaughter or other crime.
(c) Murder is a Class A felony; provided, that the punishment for murder or any offense committed under aggravated circumstances, as provided by Article 2 of Chapter 5 of this title, is death or life imprisonment without parole, which punishment shall be determined and fixed as provided by Article 2 of Chapter 5 of this title or any amendments thereto.
(Acts 1977, No. 607, p. 812, §2005; Act 2006-427, p. 1057, §1.)
I wonder if we’ll see this incident on the “The First 48”?
Typical response from moms of these thugs...”My baby is a good boy. He wouldn’t hurt nobody....yadda, yadda”.
He would have had a better chance in life if his mom would have just named him ‘Bob’.
another Mom who is shocked, just shocked, that her boy was running with the wrong crowd.
It’s sad, he was only 13. But, what the heck was he doing out late at night, holding up people, if he’s really a good boy as Mom thinks?????
I am not aware of any state that does not have the felony-murder rule.
You’re committing a felony and someone gets killed - even your partner - you’re up for F-M. Feel free to inform me otherwise. ;-)
another Mom who is shocked, just shocked, that her boy was running with the wrong crowd.
It’s sad, he was only 13. But, what the heck was he doing out late at night, holding up people, if he’s really a good boy as Mom thinks?????
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.