The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE shooting death of seven-year-old Camron Cooper has devastated his family and shocked the community he called home.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, his mother, Shavon Feast and stepfather Norman Dawkins, said the early morning tragedy that ended Camron’s life also robbed each of them of bits of their sanity.

“It’s hard to understand,” said Ms Feast as she wiped away tears. “I lost my baby, and it is something I have to keep reminding myself of every moment.

“He would have been right here,” she added, with a motion towards a small group of children playing nearby. “My baby was shot down. My baby was taken away. My baby is gone.”

The mother of three, asked to recall the last conversation she had with her young son, remembered an exchange they shared the night before his death: “I loved to annoy him, so I would tell him I love him and keep saying it until he got tired of it. That’s what I did before he went to bed Monday.”

Ms Feast said her three children shared a room and on many occasions they shared a bed when one of them was sad or sick.

“That’s what they did Monday, but last night,” she said, “Camron wasn’t there. My other son came to me and tell me ‘mommy don’t cry.’ He told me Camron is in a better place.

“I just want to hold him. I want to hug my baby one last time. I want to kiss my baby. I just can’t understand how all of this happen so fast. It is so hard to believe it. No one here can accept what happen. I want justice for my son,” she cried out.

A friend standing nearby stepped in to console her.

“It’s my baby. He really gone,” she cried as her friend told her to let it out.

Sitting on a wall just behind them, Mr Dawkins said he was too distraught to speak much about the tragedy.

“Boy, he was such a sweet kid. Damn, like he was mannerly, he listened; it just hurt so much because he didn’t cause trouble or make it. He was just a nice kid,” he said.

Camron was hit by a stray bullet on Tuesday as he walked from his front door to a waiting car. He was on his way to school. A man, believed to be the intended target, was also shot and remains in hospital. Police believe the shooting occurred over a drug dispute. 

Camron was the third person shot and the second to die in two separate incidents in the Wilson Tract/Homestead Street section of the Englerston community in less than 12 hours.

The deaths marked the 37th and 38th homicides for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

Police said the community is known as a drug source and is frequently under surveillance.

Despite this knowledge , however, residents suggest that the fear of crime and the sale of illicit drugs continue to trend up.

Several residents interviewed yesterday said police patrols in the area have been reduced to a point to which “known criminals” are able to “walk around with ease.”

Speaking anonymously, one resident, who has called the neighbourhood home for more than ten years, added: “It is real here, the games and the tricks don’t last here. These boys have legitimate gripes and when things go off, there is only one way it ends.”

The resident added: “I understand where the police and government are coming from with their approach to crime, but for people here who grow up with the mind-set of kill or be killed, it’s not as simple as avoiding a life of crime. In most cases, crime is life.”

Police took two people into custody on Tuesday night in connection with the double shooting.