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Teens Who Shot U.S. Rep Danny Davis' Grandson Shouldn't Have Had Guns: Rahm

By Heather Cherone | November 22, 2016 4:30pm
 The 15-year-old grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, pictured, was shot to death in Englewood Friday night.
The 15-year-old grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, pictured, was shot to death in Englewood Friday night.
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Facebook/Javon Wilson

NEAR WEST SIDE — Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday the two teens charged with killing U.S. Rep. Danny Davis' 15-year-old grandson should not have had access to a gun.

Javon Wilson was shot to death Friday in his Englewood home. A 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl have charged in connection with his death. Police have said the shooting resulted from a dispute over gym shoes and clothes.

"This is an incredible poignant and incredibly petty moment," Emanuel said. "This maybe should have been, at best, a fist fight."

Both teens charged in connection with Jovan's death are being held without bail.

The dispute that claimed Jovan's life was "incredibly petty and small," Emanuel said.

Davis, who represents Chicago's South Side in Congress, called for city and local authorities to declare a "state of emergency" in high crime, low-employment areas of the city in the wake of his grandson's death.

Emanuel declined to endorse that call, but agreed with Davis that city and state officials should do more to provide activities on the weekends and after school not just to keep teens busy but to give them a "foundation to know right from wrong."

"There is an emergency in my view about what is a teenager doing with a gun," Emanuel said. "That should not be within the grasp of any teenager. It should not be as familiar as a cellphone."

Emanuel said Jovan's death should prompt "core soul searching" in all Chicagoans.

"There are too many families" suffering from the murder of a loved one, killed for no reason at all, Emanuel said.

Emanuel said Jovan's death was the latest in a string of deaths where teens through no fault of their were caught up in the violence sweeping Chicago that has wounded nearly 4,000 people and killed almost 700 people in 2016.

Emanuel has long urged state lawmakers to pass a bill pending in Springfield that would toughen the penalties for those convicted of gun crimes.

The mayor also included plans to spend $36 million during three years on mentoring for 7,200 junior high school and high school boys enrolled in city schools in his 2017 budget. Much of the money is earmarked for Becoming A Man, a group that has been lauded by President Barack Obama.

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