From the Orlando Sentinel:
An armed Lakeland man killed a 14-year-old gang member in a shootout Wednesday evening after both drew guns and opened fire, according to the Lakeland Police Department.
At 7:49 p.m., Smith and two unidentified companions began taunting Canteen in the courtyard outside his Oregon Avenue apartment before the teen drew an handgun, a witness told police.
Canteen also had a handgun and, according to Canteen, the teen began shooting at him first, striking him several times in the "upper extremities," police spokesman Sgt. Gary Gross said in a report.
Canteen said he returned fire, striking the teen "numerous times."
This was not the 5-feet 8-inch tall, 130-pound teen's first brush with violence. State records state he was a convicted felon arrested twice since age 12 for armed robbery with a gun, once for battery on a public or school employee and once for burglarizing a home. . . .The Orlando Ledger has some useful information on Smith and his family.
. . . Wednesday's incident was not the first shooting to affect Davion Smith and his family.Here is later Ledger article from August 12th with Smith's mother explaining that Davion's arrest record didn't involve anything serious.
Records show he was arrested in November 2012 following a shooting at the Lakeland farmers market in which a 79-year-old man was wounded. Davion Smith and six other teens were each charged with armed robbery and attempted murder, the Polk Sheriff's Office said at the time.
Smith's brother, 15-year-old Bayshawn Kelly, who is also a documented gang member, was shot in April this year during a gang-related drive-by shooting, police said. Kelly was hit in the arm and back, but recovered.
A few weeks later, Kelly was arrested on two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm stemming from a separate drive-by shooting, police said.
Smith's cousin, 15-year-old Shyhiem Morris, was wounded in a drive-by shooting in early May. At the scene of that shooting, Patricka Smith told The Ledger that she didn't understand all the violence among Lakeland's teens. . . .
Davion's mother, Patricka Smith, said she knows her son wasn't perfect, but he didn't deserve to die.Having read a lot of these cases, if Canteen was not a concealed handgun permit holder, that information would surely have been released within five days of the shooting.
Davion, who was known as DayDay, was a star on the football field and always had a smile on his face, his family said.
He was one of five children and was generally respectful, his mother said.
He had a few problems in school and had been arrested before, but Patricka Smith said none of it was serious. . . .
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