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.
The man police identified as the suspect in a May 30, 2012 shooting in a north Seattle cafe is pictured in this handout frame grab from a surveillance video camera. REUTERS/Seattle Police Department/Handout
SEATTLE (Reuters) – A gunman shot three people to death at a popular Seattle cafe on Wednesday then fled to a downtown parking lot where he killed another woman and stole her car before shooting himself in the head as police closed in, authorities said.
The man, who was not immediately identified, was being treated at Harborview Medical Centerfollowing the late-morning spree, which police initially treated as separate incidents.
The burst of gun violence prompted a security alert and lockdown at several Seattle schools and city-run community centers in north Seattle, where residents were advised to stay behind closed doors as police searched for the suspect.
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn told a news conference that the two slayings, following a recent rash of other shootings, had shaken the city. He urged municipal leaders to “bring an end to this gun violence that the city is seeing.”
Authorities had no immediate explanation for the bloodshed, which they said began when the gunman opened fire at the Cafe Racer, an establishment in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood known for its live music.
Two men were killed outright, and three other people struck by gunfire were taken to Harborview, where one of them, a woman, died of her wounds.
None of the victims was immediately identified, but local television station KIRO7 reported that some of them may have been musicians.
Police said the suspect fled on foot and made his way a short time later to downtown Seattle, where he shot another woman dead and drove away with her sport utility vehicle.
Police later found an SUV matching the description of the getaway vehicle, with a handgun visible inside, in a West Seattle neighborhood.
The suspect was gone, but officers who confronted him a short time later saw him kneel down and shoot himself in the head, police said.
“The man detectives believe to be the lone suspect in 4 murders in 2 locations shot himself in the head when approached” by Seattle police, the police department said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Suspect In Seattle Shooting Rampage Dead
Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg says one of two men who were wounded in the cafe shooting also died Wednesday night, bringing the number of dead victims to five.
Gregg declined to release the identity of the suspect or the victims.
One man wounded in cafe shooting remains at Harborview. He is in critical but stable condition following surgery earlier in the day.
A Washington state man says the gunman who allegedly killed five people before killing himself Wednesday was his brother.
Andrew Stawicki tells the Seattle Times that a photo of the suspect shown on TV newscasts was that of his brother Ian, who he says was mentally ill.
Seattle Shooting Victim Identified as Bellevue Woman
A Bellevue woman killed during a shooting rampage was identified by multiple news sources as Gloria Koch Leonidas, a mother of two.
A Bellevue woman killed in a carjacking during a Seattle shooting rampage that took the lives of five people was identified by multiple news sources Wednesday as Gloria Koch Leonidas.
According to the Capitol Hill Seattle blog, her daughters’ Seattle school sent home a notice identifying her as a victim in the shootings, which took place in two different locations in Seattle.
According to her LinkedIn account, Leonidas worked in sales for Electrical Reps West. She was also active in the community and in 2010, served on the Board of Trustees for the Evergreen Healthcare Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising organization for Evergreen Healthcare, according to the foundation’s 2010 report.
Within an hour of that shooting, Leonidas was shot and killed and her Mercedes SUV taken from a parking lot at Eighth Avenue and Seneca Street near Town Hall in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood. Witnesses told KIRO that bystanders attempted to perform CPR on her after she was shot in the head.
The gunman dumped the SUV in West Seattle and then shot himself in the head after he was spotted by an officer, Seattle police told reporters Wednesday.
Seattle police told reporters that investigators connected the two shootings by witness descriptions of an item on his person that was spotted in both locations.
Wow…good thing America does not have stupid ass gun control laws in effect huh? Wonder what crazed gunmen would use if guns were not available as easy as buying aspirin at the local drugstore?
Hey all you fucked up gun owning 2nd amendment assholes….question for you: How many innocent humans must get slaughtered by the very thing you love, before you start to rethink that second amendment bullshit?
The 2012 Chicago Auto Show will be held from February 10 through February 19, with press days starting on February 8.
The Chicago Auto Show is held annually in February at Chicago‘s McCormick Place convention complex. It is the largest auto show in North America. The event, first produced in 1901, has been staged more times than any other auto show in North America and continues to be one of the best-attended in the world. Over one million visitors attend each year.
2008 marked the Chicago Auto Show’s 100th iteration. It is the first auto show anywhere in the world to have achieved this distinction.
Due to the vast amount of space available, several auto manufacturers have implemented creative uses of their exhibit space in recent years. For example, at the 2006 Chicago Auto Show, Pontiac and Chrysler hosted free concerts at their exhibits. The BoDeans and OK Go are among those who performed at Pontiac’s stage. Chrysler Group created the world’s largest indoor test track, and allowed attendees to ride along on a test-drive of their SUVs and trucks in extreme simulated conditions in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008; Toyota configured a similar experiential ride course for the 2011 show
Getting to the Chicago Auto Show By Public Transportation:
CTA Bus #3 (King Drive Southbound) to McCormick Square and King. Walk .3 mile east to McCormick Place.
Parking at the Chicago Auto Show:
There are 3 parking lots/garages at McCormick Place with almost 6,000 parking spaces. Prices range from $14-19 per day.
On the weekends, there are also shuttles running from the Millennium Park parking garage to the show.
About the Chicago Auto Show:
The Chicago Auto Show, being the largest in North America, draws almost every possible auto maker eager to show off their new line of cars and concept vehicles. Utilizing over 1.3 million square feet of exhibit space at McCormick Place, it’s crammed with cars, trucks, and SUVs, most readily available for visitors to climb in and check out the feeling behind the wheel (alas, you can’t actually start or drive them). While this is great fun for auto buffs, it has a practical purpose as well — when shopping for a new car it’s nice to be able to sit in a number of different models and rule out certain ones due to lack of leg room, undesirable interior finishes, etc., without having to drive around to numerous dealerships.
But the big hits are the concept cars and the revealing of new production models. A number of vehicles make their production debuts at the show, and the concept cars are trotted out to gain press for the auto makers.
Trivia tidbit: the Chicago Auto Show went on hiatus from 1943 – 1950, as interest in cars took a backseat to the production of tanks and military vehicles during World War II. This explains the 7 year discrepancy between the start date of 1901 and its anniversary number.
And finally….Name another event that mixes superlative food and drink and the elegance of formal dress . . . and a harmonica virtuoso? You’ll get all that plus the inaugural viewing of the 2012 Chicago Auto Show at the benevolent gala, First Look for Charity. Eighteen vital Chicago area charities will benefit from the more than $2 million expected to be raised by First Look for Charity. Now in its 21st year, First Look for Charity appears prominently on the calendars of both socialites and car buffs. Abundant hors d’oeuvres, champagne, wine, soft drinks and desserts await at the nation’s largest auto show. To attend, visit http://firstlookforcharity.org or call (630) 495-2282
Jueseppi B.
