Outrage over 6-year-old's shooting in Wilmington

Alonzo Small , Esteban Parra | The News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption WPD Chief: We will have justice for boy Wilmington police are tracking down leads and will make an arrest or arrests in shooting of 6-year-old boy, Chief Robert Tracy vowed Wednesday. "We will bring them to justice as quick as possible," he said at a prayer vigil for the boy.

Shaylynn Banner was holding a conversation with her 6-year-old son, Jashawn, as she was driving to his father's house in Riverside in Wilmington on Tuesday afternoon.

But their chat was interrupted along the 700 block of E. Sixth St. as bullets tore into the 31-year-old mother's SUV, which also carried her mother and her 2-year-old daughter.

Then there was silence.

A family member said Banner turned toward her backseat to find a bleeding Jashawn lying on his sister's lap. The boy's aunt, Daylynn Banner, said he'd been struck three times, including in the head.

"I'm at a loss for words because I never thought in a million years that this would hit our family like this," she said, adding the city's violence would not end until people started speaking up. "It's not called snitching. It's called helping somebody out."

Jashawn's shooter remains at large.

The boy's shooting marks the ninth child to be struck by gunfire so far this year in Wilmington and came a day after eighth-graders at Kuumba Academy wore signs on their graduation caps in tribute to their 14-year-old classmate, Parys Henry, who was unable to attend the ceremony after she was shot in the city the week before.

The gun violence is drawing outrage by many, especially as the city nears its 100th shooting victim much earlier than in previous years.

Outreach Minister Margaret Guy, who runs the Stop the Violence Prayer Chain, held a vigil Wednesday night at Sixth and Spruce streets, near where the shooting occurred.

Guy, along with several community members and advocates called for prayers, peace and city unity.

"We're concerned about this little boy. We're out here to fight for the community. To pray for the children. To pray a healing for that little boy,” Guy said.

She asked for those in attendance to help protect children from being exposed any further to gun violence in the city. It shouldn’t have to take a 6-year-old boy fighting for his life to spark outrage, Guy said.

A prayer circle was formed at Sixth and Spruce streets for Jashawn. Among them was Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, who said the shooting that has left a child struggling to live needs to be a reminder to the community that it’s time to come together.

“I just implore all of us to think about what’s really good in our community and try and build on a deeply terrible tragedy that we’re standing here thinking about today,” Purzycki said.

As tears from family members of Jashawn echoed in the streets, pleas of "stop the violence" and "please don't kill our babies" reigned. Wilmington Peacekeepers called for more adult presence in an effort to take back the community.

Resident reacts to shooting of 6-year-old boy Carmen Hall, who lives on the block where a 6-year-old boy was shot in the head, heard the gunfire at the same time she expected her son home from school. Hall and others are still trying to make sense of the shooting.

Va'Shun "Vash" Turner, a 5th District City Council member, said the city needs "to be on one accord."

"We cannot let these streets be louder than us," he said.

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The Rev. Christopher Bullock, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church south of Wilmington, said the violence was unacceptable and called on city leaders and the gunmen to bring an end to it.

"Black on black crime is a deadly disease that is eroding the very moral fabric of our community," he said in a statement. "Young brothers, I plead with you: Please put down your guns. There is always a better way."

"I am hopeful that Chief [Robert] Tracy of the Wilmington Police Department will expeditiously activate his urban policing strategy sooner than later," he said. "We are living in perilous times."

Tracy, who attended the prayer service, is bringing to Wilmington a data system and philosophy called CompStat, which he said was successful in his previous positions in New York and Chicago. Part of that program is "relentless follow up." Tracy is ordering detectives to investigate the personal networks of shooting victims immediately after every incident in an effort to prevent retaliation. This isn't a novel concept, but he's holding officers accountable for making it standard operating procedure.

Wilmington police investigate shooting on 6th Street Wilmington police investigate a shooting on Sixth Street that injured a 6-year-old boy on Tuesday, June 6, 2017.

Last month, Tracy told a public safety meeting that what's been occurring is that after people are questioned following a shooting, not much else is done to prevent the next shooting.

The department has information on a victim's associates and enemies, Tracy said last month, and "we're just not using it."

"We need an overall plan so we can prevent the next shooting," he said.

Wednesday night, he vowed the city will bring make an arrest in the shooting and bring anyone responsible to justice.

"I guarantee you, we will have that person in custody or individuals in custody very shortly," he said. Police have leads on who was involved in the shooting.

He would not elaborate on what may have caused the shooting, citing an ongoing investigation but did say he believed the incident was retaliatory.

"There's a small percentage of individuals that are going back and forth causing this violence in the city," Tracey said. "And all the good people are tired of it, and they're outraged."

Tondra Mangrum said it's not fair that an "innocent little boy" is fighting for his life.

"People need to speak up," she said. She has called for the same action since her son, Jamal Kilgoe, was shot and killed in February of 2015 at the Rose Hill Community Center near New Castle.

Carmen Hall, who lives on the block where the shooting occurred, said she worried when she heard 10 to 12 shots Tuesday. The shooting occurred about the time her 17-year-old son arrives from school.

Hall said she got up and as she ran toward the door, her son ran in and shouted, "I'm all right."

Concerned, Hall said she stepped outside and saw a woman get out of her SUV as she cried and screamed for someone to help her son.

"It hurt my heart," Hall said. "I'm still getting misty about it."

Saddened by the violence, Hall feels many of the people creating the problems lack a moral compass and consider life to be cheap.

"I just try not to think about it because I think it's hopeless," she said.

While police have not provided specifics in Jashawn's shooting, Daylynn Banner said the boy and his sister had been at her East Side apartment when her twin sister and their mother arrived.

Jashawn was playing games when he heard his mother downstairs and asked her if she would drop him off at his father's house in Riverside, to which the mother agreed.

After leaving Daylynn Banner's apartment in the 400 block of N. Pine St., the sister drove onto East Sixth Street.

It was in the 700 block of E. Sixth St. that her SUV came under fire, apparently as someone in another vehicle shot at a young man out on the block, Daylynn Banner said.

"I heard pop, pop, pop, pop, pop," Daylynn Banner said, adding she ran out because her daughter had been outside. Daylynn Banner said she walked around the corner to see what was going on. That's when she saw her sister's vehicle.

"I was crushed," Daylynn Banner.

Jashawn was rushed to Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children where he was listed in critical condition Wednesday.

"My nephew died three times, and they brought him back three times," Daylynn Banner told The News Journal Wednesday morning. "He's fighting."

Late Wednesday morning, however, Daylynn Banner received a call asking her to go to Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. She's not been heard from since.

Initially, police said the boy's mother had been shot, but on Wednesday police said the injury to her left arm was actually caused by the glass being shattered by the bullets.

Wilmington police, along with local and federal partners in law enforcement, are working to identify and apprehend the individuals responsible, said Sgt. Andrea Janvier, a police spokeswoman.

"We have received significant cooperation from the community and ask for continued support from anyone who may have information relative to this investigation," she said.

Citizens are asked to contact Detective Devon Jones at (302) 576-6206. Information also may be left on the Delaware Crime Stoppers tipline at (800) TIP-3333; information leading to an arrest may lead to a reward. Tips also may be texted to NIXLE at 888777. Updates will continue to be provided as additional information becomes available.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.