6-year-old shot dead in Canton; 11-year-old charged
CANTON — Six-year-old King Pleasant had just moved a few weeks ago into his new home in Canton from one down the street.
He was excited to start first grade. He also enjoyed “watching Youtube, of course,” his mother, Diamond Elder, said Wednesday, smiling through tears.
“And he was the Black Panther’s No. 1 fan,” she said, referring to the superhero movie.
King died Monday night, shot to death by an 11-year-old boy in a neighbor’s driveway, according to police.
The older boy has been charged as a juvenile in Stark County Family Court with reckless homicide.
Judge David Nist ordered the defendant’s name not to be released to the public. Nist also ordered the defendant’s release, placing him under “parental house arrest” with intensive monitoring. The boy’s father agreed to supervise him at all times.
The boy is also to avoid contact with any relative of the victim, according to the court paperwork.
In the meantime, the younger boy’s family is left to mourn.
Neighbors have left gifts on the family’s doorstep: A large blue envelope labeled “Love You” poked from the mailbox by their front door on Wednesday. A small potted rosebush had been placed in front of the door. A new teddy bear and a lighted candle were on the side of the second set of steps leading from the street.
And just inside her front door, Elder wept as she described her son as a funny youngster. Then she smiled, saying, “He danced better than Chris Brown.”
King, a big brother to two sisters, enjoyed his pet snake and loved his dog, a pit bull, she said.
When a Repository reporter asked Elder if she wanted to say anything else about her boy, she took the reporter’s notebook and pen, placed the notebook on her sofaand wrote, as she wiped away tears: “Rest like a true king, Wakanda forever.”