BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — While most parents are adjusting to back-to-school season and planning their children’s future, the family of 17-year-old Levi Brown is arranging a funeral after he was fatally shot during a high school football game.
It should have been a night of family and fun, but it turned into chaos and tragedy Aug. 24 when Levi, a beloved son, became a victim of gun violence at Independence High School during opening night of Friday Night Football.
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“I’ve always wanted to stand for other people, and now I got to stand in the gap for my own son,” said Chequila Jackson, Levi’s mother. “This is (something) that nobody deserves.”
Levi’s family said his death was senseless. He’s the oldest of four siblings, three sisters and a baby brother. He was also the father of a one-year-old daughter.
“He loved sports. He loved his siblings. He loved his parents and his family,” Jackson said.
Bakersfield Police Department said Levi was an East Side Crip. However, his family hopes to dispel that narrative. They said he wasn’t perfect, but he also was not in a gang. Levi was at the top of his class and a student at Bridges Academy with dreams of following in his father’s footsteps.
“This didn’t have to end like this,” said Marcasha Brown, Levi’s stepmother. “His dad is an electrician, I’m a nurse, mom’s a social worker, like, he really had a good support team. There’s no way that our baby should have been taken from us like this.”
Levi’s family is grappling with how something like this can happen among teens.
“When you think about it, children don’t come into this world wanting to be evil,” said Artisha Rawls, Levi’s Godmother. “This is taught. These people are being taught to be evil, to hate.”
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Levi’s family said BPD has yet to reach out to them. They also partly blame Kern High School District.
“Kern High should have protected my son. There was no protection,” Jackson said. “There is no way, I don’t care whose kid it is, should be on a campus and this happens. Where is the security? Where is the protection?”
“This has to turn into something else. This is deeper than my son. Maybe he has to be the sacrifice but it’s deeper than my son.”
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