Airick Leonard West remembers the six or seven times Dshawn Clayton knocked on his door early
in the morning last year.
"Airick, I missed the school bus," the 15-year-old would say. "Can I get a ride to school?"
At first it was a little bit annoying, says West, a member of the Kansas City School Board. "When I reflected on him, it really
said a lot about who Dshawn was becoming and where his priorities were. I really admired him that he would take the time to walk down to
the next block and look for a way to get to school, because he didn't
have to. That's what I really admired about him."
Clayton was one of West's "gentlemen" -- neighborhood kids who tag along with West wherever he goes. Clayton showed up in photos (like the one above) accompanying Carolyn Szczepanski's 2008 profile of West. In the photo above, he's second from the left, the one with the out-of-control hair, who West seems to be looking at.
On June 20, West posted a pair of Facebook messages about him.
Airick Leonard West mourns his fallen gentleman.deshawn's the second one (with the crazy hair). i was realizing today
that he's a major reason that i started wearing my hair in all kind of
big and crazy ways -- that was just how deshawn frequently rolled.
Clayton was accidentally shot in a friend's basement on June 16. He was declared brain dead and kept on life support for several days while his organs were removed for donation. Clayton died on June 25.
Jackson County prosecutors charged 17-year-old David L. Smith
with second-degree assault and armed criminal action in connection with
Clayton's death. Court records say Smith told detectives that he
accidentally shot Clayton while smoking marijuana and playing
with a gun in the basement of a home at 42nd and Park. Smith and
Clayton got into an argument over a chair, and Smith claimed he didn't
know the gun was loaded when he pointed it at Clayton and pulled the
trigger.
Kansas City police are counting Clayton's death as a homicide.
West
remembers Clayton as a "rough and tumble" kid with "a reputation for
being in the midst of trouble wherever it could be found here in the
neighborhood."
But West says Clayton was getting
his act together and becoming serious about school, and young men in the
community had started to look up to him.
"Several years ago, if this would have happened, it would have been
because Dshawn was involved in gang drama or Dshawn was selling drugs
or something like that," West says. "It could have been anything a few
years ago. And he'd gone so far in moving away from this stuff, it just
... he'd just come so far."
West says he thought Clayton had "dodged his bullet."
"Dshawn had come the hard
way, but Dshawn was going to make it," he says. But obviously, "he hadn't pulled himself
away from the crowd of people who play with guns, literally."
"He really represented that you're able
to maintain your survivor street cred and have great grades at the same
time," West adds. "He was finding a way to balance that but obviously, at the end,
the equation fell permanently out of balance."
Photo of Clayton and West by Angela C. Bond
Showing 1-1 of 1
This was no accident,David pointed that gun at D'Shawn not caring if he killed him or not. D'Shawn might not have been perfect, however he was a young man gowning up in this crazy world we live in. But he didn't carry gun around pointing them at people. OH your friend, It this boy called himself D'Shawn friend he would have never pointed the gun, but least of all pulled the trigger. I wanted David Smith to go to jail for a very long time. He took D'Shawn away from his future, David should not have a future. DAVID SMITH IS A MURDER AND HE NEED TO PAY FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE. TO D'SHAWN AND HIS FAMILY. I GUESS TO BLAME IT ON SMOKING POT JUSTIFIED WHAT HE DID. I DON'T THINK SO.
I UNDERSTAND IT HAPPEN LIKE: DAVID WAS POINTING THIS GUN AT PEOPLE ALL DAY. WHEN HE POINT THE GUN AT D'SHAWN AND ANOTHER BOY.
D'SHAWN TOLD HIM TO STOP POINTING THE GUN WHEN D'SHAWN GOT UP FROM HIS SEAT DAVID POINTED THE GUN AT HIM AGAIN AND PULLED THE TRIGGER. NOW IS THIS AN ACCIDENT. I DON'T THINK SO. WE WILL BE IN COURT EVERY TIME DAVID SMITH IS THERE TO MAKE SURE HE STAY THERE.
like
dislike
