Family grieves for slain son, 14, in Oakland’s Fruitvale

Marquita Brown is comforted by Michael Walker as she grieves for her son, Davon Ellis, who was slain Saturday. Marquita Brown is comforted by Michael Walker as she grieves for her son, Davon Ellis, who was slain Saturday. Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle Photo: Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Family grieves for slain son, 14, in Oakland’s Fruitvale 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

Davon Ellis loved sports. The 14-year-old boy played basketball, but his real passion was football because he excelled at every position. He kept a 2.5 grade-point average at Oakland Technical High School, where he was a freshman.

Above everything else, he was just a kid. He was just beginning to see what life had to offer, his family said, when he was shot and killed over the weekend while walking with two of his football buddies on a Fruitvale neighborhood street.

“He was only 14,” Davon’s mother, 42-year-old Marquita Brown, said Monday as she stood crying in front of a memorial of candles, flowers and football jerseys outside her home. “I appreciate it,” she said of the outpouring of support. “But nothing compares to having my son back again.”

Then she burst into tears. “I woke up this morning thinking I was going to take my son to the bus stop to go to school.”

Davon and two friends were walking on the 3300 block of Brookdale Avenue, east of Coolidge Avenue, at 7:52 p.m. Saturday. A man drove up to them, got out and asked if anyone was named “Tim,” Brown said.

“They said, 'We don’t know a Tim.’” she said. “He got out of the car, said, 'Something, something, Tim.’ They said, 'We don’t know you, bruh,’ and then he shot my son in the chest.”

Police and paramedics performed CPR on Davon, but he died at a hospital. No arrest has been made, and investigators were canvassing the neighborhood for witnesses and surveillance video.

In a statement, Police Chief Sean Whent deplored the violence. Officials announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and urged anyone with information to call police at (510) 238-3821.

Counselors were on hand Monday at Oakland Tech. He previously attended Montera Middle School in the Oakland hills.

“He was a good kid. He was quiet. He stayed to himself, you know? He wasn’t no troublemaker,” said Jack Lee, 37, a family friend. “He was just a kid. I can’t even put it in words, man. It’s a shame.”

Brown said her son and the two friends he was with were planning to transfer together to Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward to play football there. Davon had played club football with the Oakland Dynamites, part of the Youth Football Association, as well as for the Bay Area Spartans.

“All he knew was he was going to play for Moreau,” Brown said. “They were going as a package.”

Brown’s cousin, Pierre Scott, motioned to the memorial in front of them. A similar one, with a teddy bear, an orange football and a blue jersey, sat blocks away where Davon was slain.

“This is the aftermath,” Scott said. “The family’s left behind, the people that’s got to deal with this loss. This is senseless. This is a 14-year-old child. We all looked up to him, because he was the backbone for all of them who wanted to play football. He was a beast on the field.”

Brown said the person responsible “got no sense. You don’t have no home training. You don’t have no heart.”

She described her son as “goofy as hell, nonchalant, laid back, you feel me? He was just a kid, a goofy kid. He was just growing up.”

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee