During a 4th of July cookout in Southeast Washington, D.C., 11-year-old Davon McNeal was shot and killed at a “stop-the-violence”-type cookout.
Davon’s grandfather, John Ayala, says that his grandson had stopped by the cookout just to pick up a phone charged and ear buds.He says shortly after Davon got out of the car, they heard gunshots and everyone dropped to the ground.
He says “everybody’s just saying they’re just tired – tired of the shootings in the community.Everybody’s running around here thinking they’re Uzi-toting, dope-sucking, psychopathic killing machines and they’re just destroying lives. We’re protesting for months, for weeks, saying, “Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter.” Black lives matter it seems like, only when a police officer shoots a black person. What about all the black-on-black crime that’s happening in the community?”
D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham, on scene Saturday night, said a group of about five males had opened fire and that a dark-color sedan was seen fleeing through a nearby alley.
In scanner recordings found on the website “Open MHZ” first responders could be heard saying the 11-year-old was shot in the head. McNeal was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Devon’s mother, Crystal McNeal, is a violence interrupter for the city, devoted to putting a stop to violence crime. She tells Fox5:
“These people, they don’t care.These guys that’s out here shooting each other, they don’t care who’s outside, your mother, your father, your grandmother, your kids, babies, they don’t care. They shot my baby in his head. He got shot in his head! It hurts so bad... I shouldn’t have to bury my son at the age of 11.”
McNeal said her son wanted to go to college and eventually play in the NFL. He promised to buy her house.
Police are offering up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest of those involved in Devon’s murder.