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A family and the entire community are mourning the death of a three-year-old boy who was shot and killed on his birthday. Next to the boy was a man who was himself a boy not so long ago.
Jaishawn Johnson, 22, was with 3-year-old Armonie Booker and his mother in the parking lot of the Shadeland Station Shopping Center near the intersection of East 75th Street and North Shadeland Avenue on Monday night. Johnson is not Booker’s father, but he and Booker’s mother have another child together.
Police responded to a report of a person shot at approximately 9:30 p.m. When officers arrived, they found Johnson and Booker in a vehicle with gunshot wounds. Johnson died at the scene and Booker was taken to Riley’s Children’s Hospital in critical condition, where he later died.
“I’m extremely frustrated, I’m extremely frustrated,” William Young, spokesman for the Indiana Metropolitan Police Department, told the media at the scene on Monday evening. “There is no reason why I should be here talking to you about the shooting of a child.”
Family and friends posted numerous posts online about the toddler, including his own father.
Brandon Randall has been a youth worker for 18 years and said when Johnson was a teenager, Randall met him through the youth program VOICES. As a child, Randall said, Johnson had a strong personality. He was not a problem child, but knowing the situation many youth in Indianapolis face, you know they sometimes get into trouble themselves.
Randall spoke to Johnson a little over a year ago, and at the time, Johnson was trying to get his life together.
“Regardless of whether someone is involved in the justice system,” Randall said, “that doesn’t apply to the majority of the person. He was the victim of a murder. That’s the problem, people don’t care about these kids who grow up and then they blame them and condemn them. I had a kid who was afraid of not having a gun because of his environment.”
He remembers the young man as someone who was respectful and never caused trouble. He loved to laugh and smile and had a positive aura.
“This isn’t the first child I’ve lost,” Randall said. “It’s hard. It’s challenging because when you hear about situations like this, you wait a long time for the names to be announced. Then I wonder: Where are the elected officials? I haven’t heard a single explanation.”
The police are investigating the case as a homicide.
