Stop The Madness: 13-Year-Old Shot Dead By Neighbor In Front Of Mother

With all the talk of a faux “zombie apocalypse,” it seems that we’ve been missing some of the very real stories that take us back to the days of the wild west. Every time there’s a case of a young black man, or black boy, shot down in the streets, the collective community rises up and says “never again.”

Until it happens again.

It happened again.

In Milwaukee, 13-year-old Darius Simmons was shot dead by his neighbor after a dispute about stolen property by a white neighbor

In front of his mother. Let that sink in a moment.

As Global Grind reports:

With no regard for the law, [John] Spooner took matters into his own hands and murdered 13-year-old Darius Simmons, a young boy who lived next door to him.

Spooner confronted Darius and his mother and accused the teen of stealing property from his home. The property in question? Spooner said he had a collection of guns that went missing and suspected Darius of the crime, even though he was in school at the time of the robbery.

Spooner confronted Darius and his mother about the robbery and they both denied being involved with the theft, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Spooner raised his 9mm handgun and pointed at Darius.

Frightened by the sight of a gun being pointed at him only five feet away from his chest, Darius raised his hand in surrender as Spooner fired one shot into his torso. Scared, wounded and confused, Darius took off running as Spooner aimed and fired another shot, striking Darius in the back and ultimately killing him when he arrived to the hospital.

Spooner will be represented by a public defender. He was charged with first degree intentional homicide Saturday.

The truly frightening part of all this—coupled with the circumstances behind Trayvon Martin’s shooting—is that these two weren’t killed by local law enforcement. They were shot by private citizens.

It’s one thing to be killed by police (though that doesn’t make it right or just), quite another to be killed by an average Joe. There are often measures in place for what you do when you’re stopped by law enforcement. And rightly or wrongly, we teach our boys (and girls) what to do and not do to walk away alive and unscathed.

But when you’re shot by a neighbor—or a neighborhood watch pseudo-patrol guy—what then?

As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated.”

What happens when that stops working?

Stay tuned to The Well Versed as this story develops.