A middle school teenager was shot in front of his home in the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County this week.
His parents believe he was killed by other boys who had been threatening him for about three months. They say the other teens were jealous of the 13-year-old boy’s clothes.
A car filled with teenagers who were allegedly Jaeden Travis’ rivals, drove by his father’s house on Valentine’s Day. They dared him to come out for a “BB gun war,” according to Harold Travis. His son grabbed his BB gun and ran outside to confront the group, ignoring his dad’s warning.
“When I saw him running, I came out the house running. By the time I got in the middle of the street, pop, pop, pop, my son went down and said dad, I’m shot,” Travis said in an interview with WSB-TV 2.
Officers took the boy to a hospital, where he later died.
According to the boy’s mother, this fatal altercation was not the first time the teen and his friends had come to their house to start trouble.
“They came over here, they jumped him one time. I had to jump in the fight because that’s my baby, it’s just senseless,” said Jaqueitta Milerson, Jaeden’s mother.
“They were calling, sending threats, pulling up to my house,” Milerson said. “They’re sending pictures of guns, you know, threatening to actually kill him.”
After this incident, the mother said she filed a police report.
“He was very loving and very helpful. He was just like an old soul,” Milerson said. “It takes a village to raise these kids. It’s so many kids out here that’s lost.”
Jaeden was an outdoorsy type of kid, who loved to go fishing, horseback riding, and hunting, and rocked an afro hairstyle. His mom says, “ he was a daddy’s boy, and he didn’t play about his mama.”
According to the father, the boys set up his son to be killed, and “destroyed” his life.
“I won’t be able to go fishing with my son no more. We had a bond like no…
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