Justice for Lakeisha Gadson
On Tuesday Lakeisha Gadson, a mom from Roxbury, MA, was convicted of misleading police officers but acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment of a child, improper firearm storage, and illegal possession of a firearm.
According to the Suffolk County D.A.’s Office, Gadson’s teenage son, Jayquan McConnico, kept a firearm, loaded and unlocked, in a drawer in his bedroom. On June 24, 2007, her other son, 8-year-old Liquarry Jefferson, was playing with his 7-year-old cousin. The boys entered Jayquan’s room, opened his dresser drawer, took his gun, and started playing a game of some sort with it, during which the cousin somehow pointed the gun at Liquarry and fired. Tragically, Liquarry died of his injuries.
Acquitting Lakeisha, the boys’ mom, of these charges was the right verdict (she was only convicted of lying to the police about how her son died). To argue that Gadson is responsible for Liquarry’s death because she failed to ensure that Jayquan kept his gun out of the reach of children is excessive. Each person is responsible for their own actions – Gadson is not responsible for the fact that her teenage son had a gun without a license, which he kept loaded and unlocked.
But furthermore, Jayquan McConnico, who pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2008, should not be held responsible for Liquarry’s death, either. Storing a loaded gun in an unlocked drawer might not be the wisest thing to do, it is illegal, and if he hadn’t done it, Liquarry would be alive today…but that does not mean that he caused his death. McConnico is not responsible for the fact that two young boys decided to go into his room, open his drawer, and take his gun.
The cause of Liquarry’s death was his 7-year-old cousin’s decision to fool around with a gun and fire it at him. It may sound mean to pick on a 7-year-old, but seven is old enough to know what a gun is, what it looks like, and that you shouldn’t fire it at someone unless you have made sure it isn’t loaded. Everyone involved in this case has suffered tremendously, and I don’t think it is appropriate to punish anyone further for this horrible accident. But if anyone is responsible for Liquarry’s death, it is either the boy who chose to play with a loaded gun, or his mother (Liquarry’s aunt), who failed to teach her son that guns are dangerous and should be handled with caution.
Although Liquarry’s death was a tragedy, as anyone’s death is, neither Gadson nor McConnico caused it, and it only compounds the tragedy to hold innocent people responsible for things they did not do. The jury in Gadson’s case made the right decision.