Family believes 13 and 12-year-old boys killed in Louisville within 24 hours were friends, targeted

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A 13-year-old boy and his 12-year-old friend were shot and killed in Louisville 24 hours apart, and loved ones say they believe someone targeted their young lives.

"I want to know what's wrong with this picture," said Dawn Brown, covering her face with a ski mask at the start of an interview with WDRB to prove a point. "So that I could look like all the other little boys out here.

"Anybody that has a ski mask on and in 90 degree weather, something's not right."

They're the kind of masks Brown said she confiscated from her 13-year-old son, DaViawn Blackmon.

"I took every last one. I searched and seized his room on a daily basis like I was Louisville Metro (police) or the secret service," Brown said. "Because I knew something wasn't right."

Brown said she knew she was in a battle with the streets for her son. The youngest of seven, Blackmon liked cars and loved to laugh.

"I felt like my son was being manipulated," she said. "And I feel like my son was being used."

But relatives said he was being pulled toward gang life.

"We cried out for help, cried out for help, cried out for help, cried out for help, and nobody listened," Blackmon's sister, Rolanda Hamilton, said.

At 13, Blackmon was already involved in the juvenile justice system. His family said he'd recently gotten off a nine-month stint of home incarceration. They also said they tried intervention, mentoring programs, even mental health hospitalizations and evaluations.

"Nothing has helped," said Brown. "My son was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder), I've campaigned for him. I've struggled trying to get him help."

It all came to a head last week, when Blackmon was shot in the head and left for dead near 38th and Broadway on June 27.

"It's almost like I knew that this would happen," Hamilton said, as tears started to stream from her eyes. "I just did not know that it would be at 13."

His mother said he asked for $400 days before the shooting. When she refused, she said he took a machete to the furniture in their home.

She called police on him, but it was far from the first time.

"Lock him up, please, I said. He needs protection. My son needs protection, something else is going on," she said.

He was not arrested.

"He is breaking down because I think that he knew that somebody was trying to kill him, and he couldn't say anything," Hamilton said. "There was multiple murders ... multiple murders."

The next day, police said 12-year-old Justin Johnson was killed in the city's Phoenix Hill neighborhood.

"That was my son's friend," said Brown. "My son knew him, yes."

Like Blackmon, Johnson was also involved in youth intervention programming.

"I still feel some type (of) way about the situation, just because he literally spoke spike to us the day of," Louisville CURE Violence mentor Desiree Carr explained. "We heard from him the day of, and to hear what happened to him the same day. It will do something to you."

Loved ones believe it was a hit, that someone targeted the young boys.

"When are we going to talk about the children taking lives," said Hamilton. "When are we going to talk about that not being normal? That is not normal."

The juvenile crime problem in Louisville has been called an epidemic — the city at war with gangs that don't look or act the same as before.

"It's the gangs that these children are making up from whatever neighborhood that they live in," Hamilton said.

Seven juveniles have been killed in Louisville this year. Three have been charged with homicides and dozens more were shot and survived according to Louisville Metro Police.

"The gang situation is a legitimate concern for us. It's not something we're ignoring, it's not something we're trying to hide. It's something that's known," interim LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey said.

What isn't known yet is a tangible solution.

"Nobody deserved to die like that. Nobody, nobody," said Brown.

Police said there have been no arrests in either of these cases.

Anyone with information in these cases, or any other case, is asked to call the department's anonymous Crime Tip Line at 502-574-LMPD (5673). Tips can also be submitted anonymously online through the LMPD Crime Tip Portal by clicking here.

Blackmon's loved ones have set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, which can be found by clicking here.

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