I had to turn off my 14-year-old boy’s life support, to watch as his heart stopped... now a gang taunts me, they don’t care
Mum’s torment over murdered son CJ
THE mum of a 14-year-old boy shot dead has been taunted by a gang claiming to have murdered him.
Corey Junior Davis, known as CJ, was killed in a turf war as he stood outside a playground.
Mum Keisha McLeod spoke about the sick taunts after a bank holiday weekend of bloody mayhem on our streets in which three people died and four others were injured in gun and knife attacks.
The 38-year-old said she saw an online rap song about CJ’s murder after he was shot in the head last September at Newham, East London. His killers are still on the loose.
Keisha, who had to take the agonising decision to turn off her son’s life support, added: “There are people claiming this. There’s a rap song saying, ‘I don’t care your son’s dead, I laughed when I saw you bury him.’ These are the lyrics of the song. I’ve actually had to hear this. They just don’t care.
“I’m speaking out against them and even when my son’s killers are caught this will not stop for me.” CJ was murdered as part of a feud between rival gangs in his area.
Several videos mocking his death appeared online. Masked men were seen making gun gestures and boasting of shooting enemies. YouTube has removed some of the footage.
Keisha told of her struggle to keep CJ away from the clutches of gangs – but said children who end up in them are being failed by society. She also urged people not to turn a blind eye to the problems – in a bid to stop more gang murders.
Keisha added: “I’m looking at the mentality behind these people and it hurts because these are black boys.
There was my baby on the table. I whispered, ‘Mummy’s here now’ KEISHA ON MOMENT SHE SAW CJ AFTER SHOOTING
What’s going through your head? Why you have this disregard for a child’s life?
“It comes from self-hate, it all starts with that because humanity is what we all have and for you to look at a child and say, ‘I don’t care.’
“We are being incompetent and not doing anything as a nation. We need to be looking at this because this is a big epidemic and we need to bring back the community feeling and belief that one person can do something.
“If you see children fighting you won’t walk past. When I was young if I did something wrong my mum would know before I got home. That mentality is not there. We are not supposed to fail children. I ask everyone to look out for a child.”
Keisha, who has won a place at Goldsmiths college in South East London to do a Health and Social Care degree, revealed she feared CJ had been groomed by gangs in his area at the age of 13.
She told how he once called her to say he had been picked up at school and forced to sell drugs. Keisha found him with £400 worth of crack and heroin. She said: “I looked at my son and said, ‘If there’s ever a time you need to trust Mummy it’s right now. I’m going to take this from you and I want you to ride your bike home.’ He said, ‘No, Mum, you don’t know these boys.’ His hands were shaking. I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m your mum. I’ll to work it out.’” She contacted social services and police and told his school he was not coming back.
Keisha said: “I felt helpless, this is my child. I felt like a tug of war and he still wanted to side with me. He was scared.
“Even now, in hindsight, I’m so proud of the relationship I had with my son because he told me so much.”
While Keisha was waiting for social services to move her and CJ from Newham, he went to live with her brother in South London. But the teenager ran away to stay with her father back in the East End. In April last year CJ got a community order for carrying a knife.
Keisha also said he had been labelled by teachers because he had attention deficit hyperactive disorder. She was finally offered a new home in Barkingside, but it was withdrawn a week later. “I was furious. My son was vulnerable.”
Three months later, keen dancer CJ was murdered.
Keisha wept as she told how she saw her son lying lifeless in hospital. She said: “There was my baby on the table. I kissed him on his cheek and on his lips and whispered in his ear, ‘Mummy’s here now. I’ll be here when you wake up.” But surgeons said CJ had irreversible brain damage and would not survive.
The next day, Keisha turned his life support off. “This was a really horrible place to be,” she said. “We all had to say our goodbyes. It was a loving moment. I turned it off and he spasmed and his hand went up. It was like he was saying goodbye to us. My head was on his chest and his heartbeat was still going. I was crying and then his heart stopped and that’s when my tears stopped and I looked up and said, ‘Where have you gone?’”
But Keisha has faith in the police who she believes will bring her son’s killers to justice. She pleaded: “If you know anything about CJ’s death please come forward.”
Anyone with information about CJ’s murder can contact police on 020 8345 3775, or 101, via Twitter @MetCC, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 and crimestoppers-uk.org.