The mother of Jordan Davis, a slain teen who was shot at a gas station over a confrontation about his music, is speaking out. Lucia McBath says she does not want the death of her son to be remembered as a hate crime.
STORY: Michael Dunn, Man Who Killed Jordan Davis, Will Plead Self-Defense
In a sit-down interview, McBath told First Coast News that she couldn’t understand why 45-year-old Michael Dunn killed her 17-year-old son over loud music at a gas station in Florida. Nonetheless, she doesn’t want to label her son’s death as a hate crime, because it would be too divisive.
“We don’t know where he was or what kind of dark place he was in at that moment but something snapped in that man. Something snapped in him, so we are not looking at it as the hate crime because that’s not going to honor Jordan,” McBath said.
The shooting took place on Black Friday, when Davis and a group of teens stopped at a station in Jacksonville. Dunn pulled up to their car to ask them to turn their music down. Words were exchanged and Dunn pulled out a firearm from his glove department and shot the vehicle eight to nine times, fatally killing Davis.
Dunn claims that he felt “threatened” and that he shot out of “self defense,” though no weapons were found in the Davis’ car.
McBath struggled to contain her composure while speaking with FCN about the incident. She raised Davis throughout his childhood, but allowed him to live with his father in Jacksonville two years ago. She claims that just the day before on Thanksgiving, Jordan led the family prayer thanking God for his family, friends and new job.
“Thanksgiving morning, his dad was saying they were so excited because he gave the prayer and they said it wasn’t a short little fly-by-night prayer, it was like four minutes long. He was thanking God for his family in Mexico and thanking God for his mom and dad in Georgia and thankful for his father and all his friends and everybody that loved him. … and he was just so excited and happy, thanking God he had gotten a brand new job at McDonald’s,” McBath said.
Watch Jordan Davis’ mother relay her heartbreaking tale about the death of her son above.
