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The Contradictory Case of Dawone Cook


Time will tell if the justice department made a huge mistake in giving Dawone Cook a second chance
 at life. Dawone liked to post pictures on Instagram of himself and others flashing lots of cash and guns. I’ve included two I found on his Facebook.

According to Burns, Dawone accidentally shot his best friend in the head while filming a live video on Instagram on April 27, was sentenced to probation Wednesday, July 18. Dawone Cook and 18-year-old Dylan Hemphill were making the video on San Juan Street in Detroit, flashing money and guns, when Cook accidentally pulled the trigger of a gun he was holding and shot Hemphill in the back of the head. Hemphill died at the scene.
 
He was sentenced under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, meaning if he successfully completes probation, pays his restitution, and does one hundred hours of community service, including speaking to schools about playing with guns on social media. The victim’s family who appeared at his sentencing seem to be supportive of the plea agreement.

Very sadly, he’s not the first nor will he be the last to kill someone he called a friend posing and playing with guns for the sole purpose of posting videos and image to social media. Is this a mistake? Time will tell. He was only sentenced roughly two months ago. At this time, he is not incarcerated, nor can he be found in the system. His Facebook is void of anything meaningful, such as a message to other youths or an apology. It has not been updated recently.

It’s not surprising this did not make national news because it defies the prison pipeline myth. This young man was clearly given a second chance to live life without being a convicted felon, serving time or even having a criminal record. He pled guilty to a misdemeanor, namely careless discharge of a firearm causing death. Even if he violates probation, he will not be a convicted felon, despite killing someone by shooting them in the head. I only found this story crawling around on YouTube. You can view the video below.

On the negative side, this doesn’t send much of a message about choices and consequences. Why were these young men literally playing with guns? Why is there so little outrage over the life of Dylan? Dylan will never attend college, marry or have children. It also sends the message that this is the “perfect crime”. Say you suspect your friend is sleeping with your girlfriend or you suspect they have stolen money from you. What better way to kill them then to suggest making a video playing with guns or go on Facebook live, which has also had several murders broadcasted to the world?  Only time will tell if this second chance is warranted and worthwhile to consider offering to other youthful offenders who accidentally kill others. It would not be the least bit surprising, sadly, if Dawone were to kill again, but again only time will tell.

As for the gun control debate, if the current laws on record were enforced in a meaningful way, perhaps all of this could have been avoided. Don’t think for a second if turning your guns over became mandatory that Dawone and Dylan would have walked immediately to the nearest police station to obey the law. Hundreds of thousands of kids just like this would be keeping their guns leaving unarmed law abiding citizens to fend for themselves against armed intruders and robbers.
Source:
https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2018/07/teen_who_accidentally_killed_f_1.html
 
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