Set for what would have been Davis’ 18th birthday, the 1-to-5 p.m. event will include free food and live music.
His parents have lobbied against gun violence since he was killed Nov. 23 at a Gate station on Southside Boulevard.
“The kids that actually touched Jordan … want to know what can they do, how can they celebrate the life of Jordan Davis,” said his father, Ron Davis. “… He partially lost his life because of loud music. He wanted to hear his music.”
“We don’t want people to mourn anymore because we have to take care of those who are still living,” added mother Lucia McBath. “So it is a celebration of life for Jordan and a celebration for the families and lives of all the victims who have died needlessly because of gun violence.”
Police said Satellite Beach resident Michael David Dunn and his girlfriend parked next to Jordan and his friends that night outside the Gate. Dunn traded words with them about the loud music coming from the vehicle before eight or nine shots were fired killing Jordan, police said. Dunn, 46, entered a not-guilty plea Dec. 17 on a first-degree murder charge.
Dunn’s first attorney stated his client fired when he saw a shotgun in the teens’ SUV. Police said they found no evidence of a shotgun.
Davis and McBath attended a congressional hearing on gun violence prevention this month in Washington and have been discussing the issue with other groups for the past month. They feel they are doing the right thing to fight gun violence after visiting Jordan’s gravesite Tuesday.
“That’s what we get to do with Jordan’s legacy — make a difference for everyone,” McBath said. “… I feel his presence — we both do — and it makes us understand and know we are doing the right thing.”
Mayor Alvin Brown’s office also is finalizing a proclamation to officially make Feb. 16 Jordan Davis Day, spokesman David DeCamp said.
dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549
Jasmine Rhey, J City and T Roy Live in The Station On Jordan Russell Davis Day
Published on Feb 11, 2013
What are you doing for Duval?? T- Roy, jasmine Rhey and J. City short clip! .
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The City of Jacksonville has proclaimed Saturday, February 16, as Jordan Russell Davis Day.
The day falls on what would have been the teens 18th birthday.
Jordan Davis was shot and killed on Black Friday last November after an argument over loud music at a Southside Gate gas station.
The suspected gunman in the attack, Michael Dunn, is facing a charge of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Dunn’s next court date is February 19.
Festivities for Jordan Russell Davis Day will be Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jacksonville Landing. Free food, soft drinks and musical entertainment will be available. The event is hosted by EasyE and T-Roy.
The attorney for the family of Jordan Davis, the unarmed black 17-year-old shot and killed last Friday by a white gun collector in Florida, said the case isn’t about race as many have asserted. Rather, he said it’s about love, hate, and hard lessons learned from another high profile and racially charged killing.
I disagree and here’s why:
Michael Dunn, the 45-year-old man who shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davisin a Florida parking lot, has pleaded not guilty and is using the state’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law in his defense.
Dunn was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Davis and is being denied bond at a jail in Florida’s Brevard County. The two had a confrontation at a gas station in Jacksonville over the volume of the music coming from the car Davis and his three friends were in. Dunn’s lawyer, Robin Lemonidis, said that he thought he saw a shotgun in Davis’ SUV and he heard the teens verbally threaten to kill him.
According to Dunn’s attorney, Robin Lemonidis, he saw a shotgun in the SUV, while the teens yelled threatening, obscenities.
“Kill that mother**er, that mother**er dead, you dead bi**h, and then he sees that much of the shotgun coming up over the rim of the SUV which is up higher than his Jetta, Lemonidis told reporters. And it’s-all he sees are heavily tinted windows, which are up and the back windows which are down, and the car has at least four black men in it. And he doesn’t know how old anybody is, he doesn’t know anything, but he knows a shotgun when he sees one.”
No weapons were found in Davis’ car.
Dunn also believed that the teenagers were going to tell their friends to kill him. He said that he didn’t believe anyone was harmed after he let off eight to nine shots at the vehicle.
Lemonidis explains:
“He didn’t think he had harmed anybody and he just thought he had scared them off and he wanted to report it, but he didn’t want to go in a sense throw himself to the wolves, in a strange city without representation.”
After the shooting, Dunn and his girlfriend drove 159 miles to his home in Brevard County, where he was arrested the next day.
I’m going to stop this report here and ask 3 very vital questions:
1). What gave Dunn the right to believe he and his girlfriend had a legal right to approach the SUV Mr. Davis was inside, to ask them to turn down their music? Just drive away or better yet, mind his business.
2). If, and this is a big if, Dunn felt so threatened as his attorney claims, why did he approach the car in the first place, and when he felt so threatened by the SUV of Black young men, why not drive away? Because he knew he was armed, and he knew of Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law.
3). If Dunn felt he was within his legal rights, according to Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, why drive away from his murder scene, and drive 159 miles to his home?
The fatal shooting of a Florida teenager who was listening to loud music in a car a week ago has drawn comparisons to the Trayvon Martin case, but the differences are significant.
Unlike the Martin case, several people witnessed this shooting and there was no scuffle before 17-year-old Jordan Davis was shot to death. And notably, the man accused of firing into the car was arrested a day later.
Michael David Dunn is charged with murder and attempted murder in the Nov. 23 shooting at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station. The 45-year-old Dunn parked beside the sport utility vehicle occupied by Davis and three other young men and told them to turn the music down, police said.
Dunn exchanged words with Davis, who was in the back seat, and started firing. He later told police he felt threatened. His attorney has said Dunn saw a gun and shot in self-defense, perhaps laying the ground work for a case under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
Since the shooting, Davis’ family has received an outpouring of support from the community. A “Justice for Jordan” Facebook page was set up and his classmates gathered at a memorial service with T-shirts showing Davis’ smiling face. Fire trucks saluted him by spraying water over an airplane carrying his body to Atlanta while it was on the runway. The teen’s mother lives near Marietta, and a funeral is scheduled for Davis Saturday at the Trinity Chapel Church of God in Powder Springs.
Davis’ father, Ron, said his son was a typical high school junior who was getting ready to start his first job at McDonald’s, looking forward to buying his first car and turning 18 early next year. He had a “million-dollar smile” and liked music, listening to mostly rap but also the sounds of his dad’s generation, including James Brown and The Temptations.
Standing over his son’s casket, Ron Davis promised to fight laws that allow people to carry guns outside of their homes.
“Law enforcement should be the only people who should have guns on the street,” he said. “That’s what’s killing our kids more than anything.”
Police said they didn’t find a weapon in the SUV with the young men, and Ron Davis said he doesn’t believe Dunn’s claim that he saw a gun. He thinks Dunn is searching for an explanation.
Ron Davis, the father of Jordan Davis is embraced as he arrives at the funeral home for the visitation and a memorial service for his son Jordan, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012 in Jacksonville, Fla.(Photo by Bob Self/AP Photo/The Florida Times-Union)
Micheal David Dunn didn’t need to approach the SUV with the loud music, he could easily have driven away to another gas station if the loud music offended him and his girlfriend, After all, when finished killing Jordan Davis, he didn’t then find an empty pump and fill up….he drove 159 away to his home.
(L. to r.) A Wolfson High School classmate of Jordan Davis breaks down outside the funeral home where the visitation with Jordan’s family was taking place at the Hardage-Giddens Funeral Home in the Mandarin area of Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 28. Friends of Jordan comfort one another outside the funeral home. Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union/AP
A Florida gun collector has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge alleging that he opened fire on a car full of unarmed teenagers, killing one, in an altercation that police say stemmed from loud music.
Michael David Dunn, 45, acted “as any responsible firearms owner would have,” his lawyer said of the Friday evening incident at a gas station outside a convenience store in Jacksonville, Fla.
Dunn and his girlfriend were in Jacksonville for his son’s wedding when they pulled up in their car next to the teens. Police allege that while the girlfriend was in the store, Dunn told Jordan Russell Davis, 17, and his three friends to turn down their music.
“It was loud,” Jacksonville homicide Lt. Rob Schoonover said of the teens’ music. “They admitted that. That’s not a reason for someone to open fire.”
After an exchange of words, Dunn began shooting with a handgun, Schoonover said.
“Nobody else in that vehicle was struck; it was just our victim [Davis], which was lucky because the vehicle was shot eight or nine times,” Schoonover said.
Dunn and his girlfriend drove off and spent the night at their hotel, according to Schoonover, but witnesses took down his license plate number. Police arrested him Saturday morning at his home in Satellite Beach, Fla., on one charge of murder and three charges of attempted murder.
“His side of the story is he felt threatened and that is the reason he took action,” Schoonover said.
On Monday, Dunn — a gun collector who shot at local gun ranges, according to authorities — pleaded not guilty in Brevard County court, with his attorney describing his actions as self-defense.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office: Michael Dunn is accused of the shooting death of Jordan Davis.
“Once all the facts come out, that what really happened is known, it will be very clear that Mr. Dunn acted responsibly and as any responsible firearms owner would have acted under these same circumstances,” said his attorney, Robin Lemonidis, reported FirstCoastNews.com, the website for NBC station WTLV in Jacksonville.
The attorney for the family of Jordan Davis, the unarmed black 17-year-old shot and killed last Friday by a white gun collector in Florida, said the case isn’t about race as many have asserted. Rather, he said it’s about love, hate, and hard lessons learned from another high profile and racially charged killing.
In a rare interview since Davis’ killing on Nov. 23, John Phillips, a personal injury and wrongful death attorney in Jacksonville, Fla., talked with MSNBC.com about the teen’s tragic death, the somewhat cheerless pas de deux between lawyer and the media in such cases, and the comparisons Davis’ killing have drawn to the case of Trayvon Martin.
“This isn’t a race case. It isn’t about black and white, it’s about love and hate,” Phillips said. “The main thing right now is trying not to make it too, not to foster any hate. That’s a lot of what came out of Trayvon.”
My question is, once again very simple: What fuels love and hate against a human you know nothing about? A human you have never met, never talked to, never spent a single moment with until you ruthlessly pull that trigger murdering that human in cold blood?
Skin color.
Racial Hatred.
Racism.
Yes, It Is All About Race.
We’ve seen this case unfold before. In February, George Zimmerman killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, claiming that he posed a threat. He also used the “Stand Your Ground” law in his defense, which allows someone to use deadly force when they are attacked and feel that their life is being threatened. However, the law does not specify the terms of a “threat” that allow someone to kill another person. It’s time to repeal the law.
ANAHEIM, Calif.(AP) — A police shooting that left a man dead led to a violent clash as angry witnesses threw bottles at officers who responded with tear gas and beanbag rounds to suppress the crowd, authorities said.
The man was shot in front of an apartment complex around 4 p.m. Saturday following a foot chase, Anaheim Sgt. Bob Dunn said. He died three hours later at a hospital.
The Orange County Register cited family members and neighbors who said the man shot was Manuel Diaz. Dunn said he could not confirm the man’s name early Sunday.
His niece, 16-year-old Daisy Gonzalez, said her uncle likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement.
“He (doesn’t) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone,” Gonzalez told the newspaper after lighting a candle for her uncle. She cursed at officers who were nearby and a police helicopter that hovered overhead.
As officers were investigating what happened at the scene, Dunn said an angry group of people began yelling and throwing bottles at them. He said that as officers detained several people, the crowd advanced on officers so they fired tear gas and beanbag rounds at them.
Video captured by a KCAL-TV crew showed a chaotic scene in which officers fired beanbag rounds as some people ducked to the ground while others scattered screaming. A man is seen yelling at an officer even as a weapon is pointed at him; two adults huddled to shield a boy and girl. Meanwhile, a police dog ran into several people sitting on the grass, including a woman and child in a stroller, before biting a man in the arm.
Dunn said the dog somehow got out of a patrol car and was “deployed accidentally.”
Throughout the night, police in multiple marked and unmarked squad cars attempted to control an unruly crowd gathered near the shooting scene, the Register reported.
Some in the crowd moved a Dumpster into an intersection and set its trash on fire on at least three separate occasions, while officers kept responding to move it out of the way of traffic.
Dunn said gang detectives are involved in the investigation.
Crystal Ventura, a 17-year-old who witnessed the shooting, told the Register the man had his back to the officer. She said the man was shot in the buttocks area. The man then went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. Another officer handcuffed the man who by then was on the ground and not moving, Ventura said.
“They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face,” she told the newspaper. Dunn said he could not comment on these allegations because the shooting is under investigation.
Dunn said the man shot by police was one of three men who ran away from officers who approached them in an alley. The other two suspects have not been captured.
He would not say why police shot the man, saying that the details are under investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
He said several people were arrested in the melee, but he couldn’t immediately provide a figure.
More:
Update: Protesters storm lobby of Anaheim police on Sunday
A near-riot broke out in Anaheim, California on Saturday after a police shooting left one man dead and angry witnesses began throwing bottles at police offers. Police responded by firing bean bags and rubber bullets into a crowd of terrified women and children and even loosed a police dog on one woman and her baby.
Residents, who have recently been complaining about alleged police violence, told KCAL 9 News that Manuel Diaz was running away from police who had attempted to speak with him when he was shot from behind with a bullet that hit him in the buttocks. He fell to his knees and was struck in the head by another bullet. Police handcuffed the motionless man and he was taken to the hospital, where he died three hours later.
However, it was what happened after residents had blocked off a street and set fire to a dumpster that left even the KCAL reporters shocked. Not only did the police fire on women and children, hitting at least one young boy, but a police dog was allowed to attack a mother with her child.
“They just released the dog and I had my baby in the stroller,” the hysterical mother told the news team. “The dog just grabbed me with his teeth.”
According to reporter Jay Jackson, dozens of people were filming the event with their cellphones, and four different people told him “that police officers offered to buy their video from them without any explanation.”
Update: On Sunday afternoon, protesters gathered in the lobby of the Anaheim Police Department chanting “No justice, no peace” and “Justice for Manuel.”
The demonstration came at the same time as a police press conference, during which it was announced that two officers involved in the fatal shooting have been placed on paid leave, pending a full investigation of the incident. Police Chief John Walter also indicated that the dog which rushed into the crowd biting people had accidentally escaped from a police vehicle.
“We are extremely sorry for the people who were bit,” Welter stated. “The city will be responsible for all medical bills associated with the dog. The canine officer responsible for the dog is devastated by this.”
Jueseppi B.
