How can anyone live with themselves after shooting a young child?

There is no other way to start this column, besides expressing, like so many others, how outraged I am that Ayshawn Davis, an innocent 11-yearold boy was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting Sunday night in the Collar City.

Any life lost due to violence is outrageous and shouldn’t be happening, especially how often it has happened throughout the Capital Region this year, but seeing this time it was an 11-year- old boy hurts to a different level.

I can’t imagine what his family and friends are going through. I mean I know what it’s like to lose a loved one to illnesses, but not to violence, and it’s just stupid that people would openly shoot up a street with many innocent people hanging outside in their neighborhood.

This little boy was just entering the 6th-grade, which is supposed to be a milestone in a student’s life, with moving up from elementary school to middle school, and Ayshawn will never get to experience middle school, high school, or college because of a stupid person thinking it was a good idea to shoot up a whole block without even thinking of any consequences.

I feel bad that Ayshawn just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Not that I would ever think about shooting someone, but if I was the person responsible for the drive-by shooting, I wouldn’t be able to live a normal life knowing that I just took a young boy’s life away for no good reason and would feel the need to turn myself in to police.

I wish I had the opportunity to meet Ayshawn because from what I’ve seen and heard about him, he was a kind and hardworking child who had his whole life ahead of him still. Seeing the picture of Ayshawn helping out at Jimmy’s Pizzeria and Restaurant in Troy, is now hard to see.

I remember seeing that photo and hearing about the story of how Ayshawn refused to take no for an answer after walking into the pizza shop looking for some work. When I first saw that picture of him last year, I couldn’t help but to smile and admire his work ethic at such a young age, but now when I see that picture on social media, I get upset and angry that someone would take his life for no reason.

I pray that the police are able to find the suspects involved in this senseless murder and I, like many others can’t wait to see those responsible receive the justice they deserve for committing such a dumb act.

City police are asking that anyone with information about this crime to contact the Troy Police Department at 518-2704427 or online at troypd.org.