Savannah-Chatham police on Friday declined to release more than basic information about the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old in Savannah’s South Garden neighborhood the night before.
They provided his name: Jajuan McDowell.
They said he grew up here and was visiting from the Atlanta area.
And they said he and a second teenager were “reportedly playing” with a gun about 4:30 p.m. in the 1300 block of East 69th Street when it went off and killed him. McDowell was rushed to Memorial University Medical Center — the regional trauma center just blocks from the home — but it was too late.
The investigation is active, and no charges have been filed, said Sonny Cohrs, police spokesman.
Right now, it’s not clear who owned the gun, what it was doing in the home or how the kids got the weapon.
Terry Enoch, who runs the public school system’s police department, said he found the death of the 14-year-old so horrific he couldn’t really think of the right words to say.
“My heart goes out to the family,” he said. “... We’re losing too many of our kids.”
Thursday wasn’t the first time in recent memory that gun violence — accidental or intentional — has ripped life from Savannah’s children.
Barely two years ago, on April 4, 2014, a shot rang out in a West Savannah home. Montrez Burroughs, 11, was dead. Police said he and a 12-year-old friend had been “handling” a firearm in the Church Street house when the gun went off.
Eight months later, 15-year-old Jamari Batts was shot and killed outside his Madison Apartments home. Then, too, police said the wound that killed Batts was inflicted after he and another teenager were “handling” a gun.
Police are keeping mum about the McDowell case, but the narrative so far doesn’t read like the street shootings that are so often reported in this city.
Edward Chisolm, director of the Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority, says the idea that anyone that young would even get a firearm is just baffling.
“This whole issue of accessibility of guns to kids — it’s just unreal, and that has gotten progressively worse over the years,” Chisolm said. “I just don’t remember coming up as a 14-year-old with that kind of access to guns. It comes back to parents and adults in the community being more diligent and vigilant about making sure … to try our best to keep guns away from children.”
And sometimes, children are willing perpetrators of violence.
Last May, 15-year-old Mikell Wright was shot and killed outside Sunrise Villas apartments during an armed robbery. Three other teenagers — 15-year-olds Tobias Daniels and Zykieam Redinburg and 13-year-old Antonio Griffin — were indicted on murder and related charges.
And in February, 13-year-old Damiria Phillips was arrested and charged with shooting and robbing a pizza delivery driver on East Duffy Street.
Chisolm said there’s a societal fascination with guns and that overexposure by various media has left young people desensitized to violence despite its real and crippling impact on the community.
“You have this younger generation that’s not afraid of guns and not afraid to use guns, and then you have an older generation I would say that’s less than vigilant about keeping guns away from young people,” Chisolm said. “That’s just a recipe for disaster.”
For events like Thursday’s or May’s to be prevented, he said, “We have to do better.”
That’s what Enoch said, too, and he thinks it’ll take a “whole village” approach. As police chief of the school system, he sees the impact violence has on kids.
But he’s also seen a few more angles: Enoch’s been assistant chief of the police department, director of the recidivism-curbing Savannah Impact Program and jail administrator for the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.
Children are Savannah’s most valuable resource, Enoch said, and something must be done so McDowell doesn’t become “just another life lost.”
“This should be a priority for every elected official, for every law enforcement officer, for every resident,” Enoch said. “We have to do more, and we have to do more together so we can reach them.”