18-year-old killed in shootout

6/26/2003

An 18-year-old was killed and a 17-year-old remained hospitalized yesterday after what authorities believe was a gang-related shootout in front of a central Toledo home.

Jeffrey Jackson, Jr., of 1216 Nevada St., was pronounced dead at the scene about 3:30 a.m. His body was on the front porch of 1623 Ottawa Dr., Toledo police Detective Sgt. Tim Noble said.

Sergeant Noble said Mr. Jackson was shot in the head. The younger victim, identified as Derek Parks of 3333 North Detroit Ave., was shot in the buttocks and taken to Toledo Hospital.

Hospital officials declined to give a condition on young Parks late yesterday.

Authorities said Mr. Jackson, the Parks youth, and others were on or near the front porch of the house on Ottawa Drive when a slow-moving van drove by. Sergeant Noble said the people in the van exchanged gunfire with the people outside the Ottawa Drive residence and sped off.

“Derek shook [Mr. Jackson's] ankle and kept asking him, ‘Are you all right? Get up, man,'” said Donyel Fordham, 16, who said he was inside the house on Ottawa at the time. “I think this is terrible. We're all sad because we just lost a friend.”

Melody Jones, who lives at the Ottawa residence, said she was sleeping and heard a sound she thought was firecrackers. Ms. Jones said she walked from an upstairs bedroom to the door to investigate and found Mr. Jackson and the Parks youth on the porch.

“I just moved here, and I'm about to go,” Ms. Jones, 32, said. “I can't believe this. These bullets went straight through my house and into the back of it. We're lucky no one was on the first floor.”

Ms. Jones said she knew Mr. Jackson and young Parks from the neighborhood.

Sergeant Noble said police found the van they believe was used in the shooting several blocks away, but declined to give the location. He said the van had been reported stolen.

Police are investigating the possibility that the shooting was gang-related and perhaps connected with a shooting early Sunday that took the life of David Lamar Davis, 25, of 904 Hamilton St.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Rayshawn McCoy, 22, for that shooting. Police had not found McCoy as of late yesterday. Police believe McCoy shot Davis after an argument at a BP Oil gas station at 2315 North Detroit Ave. about 3 a.m. Sunday.

“We don't have anything carved in stone, but there is a possibility of gang involvement,” Sergeant Noble said.

Police Chief Mike Navarre said the department will take “pro-active” measures this weekend in hopes of discouraging additional violence in the aftermath of the shootings.

Chief Navarre said the department's directed policing unit and gang task force will be involved.

In the block of Ottawa near where yesterday's shooting occurred, some neighbors cried and some complained about the violence and what they believe was a slow response by police. Others expressed the pain of losing a loved one and friend.

A distraught Jeffrey Jackson, Sr., father of the victim, said he learned of the shooting and his son's death from a phone call.

“This was my only son, and they killed him,” said Mr. Jackson, Sr., standing at the home of a relative a few houses down from where the shooting took place. The elder Mr. Jackson had been shot in January trying to escape from men who attacked him in the same block.

Another man, wearing a T-shirt with hand-printed gang writing on it, remembering Mr. Jackson and Mr. Davis, said the pain in the neighborhood could turn to anger.

“It makes you want to retaliate,” said the man, who declined to give his name. “I'm very hurt because I lost two friends in four days. This has just brought a lot of pain here. The police need to find the gunman. That's what I want to add. They need to find the gunman.”