By Rayna Reid Rayford ·Updated February 3, 2023
On January 7, just minutes before 4 am, Karon Blake was gunned down outside the home of 41-year-old Jason Lewis in Northeast Washington’s Brookland neighborhood. Lewis claims “he heard noises and was afraid someone was trying to get into his home.”
More than three weeks after Blake died from multiple gunshot wounds, Lewis finally surrendered himself to the police and was taken into custody on Tuesday, and has since been indicted. During the arraignment, “Lewis’s attorney entered a ‘Not Guilty plea,’ claiming his client was innocent and acted in self-defense…The judge ordered Lewis held without bond.”
Documents reveal that “Karon is heard yelling in surveillance camera footage, ‘I am sorry,’ ‘Please don’t,’ ‘No,’ ‘I am a kid,’ and ‘I am only 12’ numerous times as Lewis fires his weapon at the child,” Buzzfeed reports.
According to DC Police Chief Robert Contee, “[t]he biggest grievance is that the first shot that was fired was actually fired at someone who was sitting in a vehicle, who was not an immediate threat to the person who fired the shot. So that in itself raises issues…From that point, everything else that kind of unfolds is as a result of that initial shot that gets fired.”
Lewis, an employee of the Washington D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, who has been employed by the city for 17 years, was placed on leave from his job following the incident.
Community members have been in an uproar since the shooting, and numerous “residents [have] pressed the police for answers before Tuesday’s announcement of charges. Many said that alleged tampering with material property should not result in a person being killed.”
Just yesterday, Blake’s mom Londen spoke to the public for the first time since her son was fatally shot, “You know, children are children. Some of them grow up too fast. Some of them do things that they’re not supposed to do, and some of us parents are not aware at all times…What I can say is that Karon came from a good home, and I tried my best with him. But Jason Lewis, he had no right, he had no right…Everybody is like what is he doing out at 4 a.m.? Would you all feel better if it was at 4 p.m.? A crime is a crime, and that’s just that. He took my baby, my firstborn, and it’s messed up. But I got to live with that. But I really hope that I get justice for my child, and I hope that this man is convicted to the highest. Justice for Karon.”
“Children make their own decisions. As adults, we do too. You can talk until you’re blue in the face to your child, but if their mind is set on what they want to do, then that’s what they want to do. All we have to do as parents is really be parents and try our best, that’s it … We have jobs, we have other children, we not going to be there every single time…every single moment,” continued Blake.
At the press conference, The Cochran Firm’s Brian McDaniel, representing the Blake family, plainly stated, “Mr. Lewis is responsible for the shooting death of 13-year-old Karon Blake, who was unarmed at the time of his shooting.”
TOPICS: Karon Blake
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