The family of a 14-year-old Black boy shot and killed in Lawrence, Kansas, wants the white teen who killed him tried on federal hate crime charges. Kamarjay Shaw died on March 18 after allegedly being shot by then-17-year-old Derrick Del Reed.
According to the Lawrence Journal-World, Kamarjay’s cousin, Michael Berry, requested the hate crime charges in a letter written to Kansas U.S. attorney Kate Brubacher. Reed was charged with first-degree murder as an adult following the shooting death of Kamarjay near Maple Lane and 13th Street in Lawrence on March 18.
Reed has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys plan to argue self-defense. However, according to the Lawrence Times, his mother says video footage shows Kamarjay running away when he was shot.
The court heard testimony in a preliminary hearing in August that Reed threatened Kamarjay with racial slurs via Snapchat earlier in the day. Reed said in the messages he was tired of fighting with Shaw and his friends, whom he referred to as racial slurs, and was ready to start shooting.
“I’m gonna let them try some funny (expletive) … Them (N-word) are dead fr(for real)” and “I see a whole lotta dead (N-word),” the Snapchat messages said, according to the Laurence-Journal World.
The hearing also revealed that a teenage girl called one of Kamarjay’s friends via Snapchat and asked the 14-year-old to come outside because Reed wanted to fight him. Witnesses testified that Kamarjay was half a football field away from Reed’s front door when the shooting occurred, according to ABC News.
“I believe this is a clear cut violation of 18 U.S. Code § 249 (the federal hate crime statute),” Berry wrote in the letter, and Reed “through the use of a firearm, killed Kamarjay Shaw in cold blood, having set up an ambush. He should be facing life in federal prison.”
Kamarjay’s mother, Barbara Shaw, confirmed the boys had been fighting for “a couple years” prior to the shooting. The family also accused Lawrence Journal-World of stereotyping her son due to his juvenile court cases and said the outlet implied that Kamarjay deserved to be shot.
“I just want my son’s side to be heard,” said Shaw. “I don’t appreciate the way the Journal-World reported about my son. Yes, he had ongoing cases — he sure did — but he wasn’t found guilty of any of them.”
Shaw added that her son saved his cousin’s life last year when he performed CPR on the now 23-year-old. “That night, he saved a life — like it just shocked me,” she recalled. “I was so proud of my boy.”
Kamarjay played basketball and football, and his father, LaTouche Shaw, said he had high hopes for his talented child.
Mr. Shaw added that his son wasn’t treated fairly by law enforcement and the court system regarding his juvenile cases.
“In the adolescent stage, you’re still learning,” he said. “I don’t appreciate the people slamming my son. Some of us are fortunate to make it out of our adolescence unscathed. Some of our mistakes, they go unseen, but some of our mistakes are played out in front of the world. Does that make a teenager a bad kid? No.”
Mr. Shaw told Fox 4 News that his son was well-known and loved in the community.
“He was just so charismatic, man. I’m talking about he was charismatic, everybody loved him,” he said. “I’m talking about if you go anywhere in this town, they say ‘Kamarjay, Kamarjay.’ Everybody knows Kamarjay.”
The police conducted a 12-hour-long manhunt for Reed before the teenager turned himself in. Reed is currently being held on a $500,000 bond at the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center. His trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 27.
Read the full story at Atlanta Black Star.
