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.
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