His middle school football trophies rest on a small table in the living room.
His red metal-framed bunk bed is still neatly made. But 15-year-old Da’Vontae Ziegler’s laughter no longer echoes through the house on Gwynnwood Drive.
It’s been nearly half a year since shots were fired in the driveway of his North Nashville home, and police say he was killed by an 11-year-old boy with a gun.
The kind of violence that took Da’Vontae’s life has his aunt Amelia Griswould reeling, begging the community to take action. She volunteers with the Tennessee chapter of Moms Demand Action, a non-profit organization that operates under a national chapter that advocates for gun control and reform.
“We have got to do something,” said Griswould, who raised Da’Vontae. “Our children are just dying.”
Da’Vontae is one of nine children who have died as a result of criminal homicide in Nashville in 2015. An additional nine people ages 18 to 21 also have been killed.
That’s more so far this year than each of the past 10 years, and six were victims of gun violence.
In addition to the increase in lethal violence among the city’s youth, Nashville has seen a shift from the consecutive record low homicide counts in 2013 and 2014, with 43 and 41 deaths, respectively. This year the city surpassed those totals by early September, with 46 homicides to date, and two dozen of the 30 people charged in this year’s homicides are 18 years old or younger. (continue reading at USA Today)