Report: Tenn. boy, 12, shot dead after honoring slain cousin
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. --A 12-year-old Tennessee boy was shot dead Saturday hours after he attended an anti-violence basketball game to honor his 15-year-old cousin who was killed in a December shooting, according to news reports.
Jajuan Hubert Latham died of a gunshot wound to the head after the shooting at a park in Knoxville just before 10 p.m., police said Sunday in a news release. There were at least 200 people gathered at the park for a cookout, reports CBS affiliate WVLT. Latham was reportedly in the back of his father's parked car when gunfire erupted between a group of people in the park and occupants of two passing vehicles, reports CBS affiliate WREG.
Police believe the shooting was gang-related.
It happened just hours after Latham and his father had attended a basketball game earlier Saturday at a high school organized by former University of Tennessee basketball player Bobby Maze that encouraged Knoxville youth to halt violence, WATE reported.
Latham reportedly went to the game to honor his cousin Zaevion Dobson, a high school football player who was fatally shot Dec. 17 while protecting friends from what officials believed was a gang-related shooting. A 20-year-old suspect was arrested on a weapons charge shortly afterward.
After Dobson's death, president Barack Obama reportedly called him a hero in a tweet about gun violence.
"Zaevion Dobson died saving three friends from getting shot. He was a hero at 15. What's our excuse for not acting?" Obama said in the tweet.
Latham's mother Delandra Porter said her son was still mourning the loss of his cousin.
"He was so hurt about Zaevion, he just had so many questions as to how it happened, did he feel it? Just so many questions," Porter told WVLT though tears.
Knoxville police are interviewing witnesses to Latham's shooting and investigating evidence including shell casings found at the scene, reports WVLT.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Knoxville Police Department's crime information line at 865-215-7212