Aunt shares story about nephew’s shooting with Human Rights Commission

Presenter: In his final meeting as chair of the Human Rights Commission, Dr. Silky Booker turned over his speaking time to a member of the community. At the HRC May 15, Laurel Shaw:

Laurel Shaw: On Feb. 17, my 14-year-old nephew, Major, was shot in the head twice, in front of my daughter.

So my daughter witnessed the crime and Major did survive. He was on life support for a week up at Doernbecher’s, and he has a long, long road ahead of him.

He was able to come home eventually, and he developed a spinal fluid leak from his nose. He has had three major surgeries, three major brain surgeries, and he got spinal meningitis the last time he was there.

We have trusted the police and the DA and the system to support and get justice for Major. And unfortunately, this is not the experience that we’re having. I don’t feel like this case has been taken seriously. And we have gotten the runaround from the DA.

Major is a 14-year-old African American boy in our community. He’s my nephew. And a little backstory, he is the funniest child you will ever meet—funny. He’s big on family and he is amazing.

The shooter is a 16-year-old white boy. I do not believe that the crime was a biased crime, but I believe that the result has been anything but results that we would want to see.

My stepbrother was a African American young man who committed a murder and he was tried as an adult and he was given the maximum penalty and we can’t even get the DA to put this before the courts to try this young man as an adult.

And the DA is basically saying that they’re just going to leave it up to the judge and that Major is not the concern of the judge, that the victim is not the concern, that the best interest of the offender is what the judge looks at. And those were the words that we got from the DA.

My daughter witnessed this crime and she was five feet from her favorite cousin when he got shot. And they have interviewed her one time and it was a short interview and we haven’t heard from anybody since. We haven’t heard from the DA. We haven’t heard from the detective. We haven’t heard from anybody.

When I reached out to Victim Services to see if I could get referrals for counseling for my daughter, I was told that she’s not the victim and that they don’t have any services for her. And my response was she’s not the victim, but she is a victim of this crime.

And the way that we were treated was basically that there was nothing that they had to offer her. I am still dealing with that. I got my daughter into therapy now, but there is so much trauma… and nobody seems to care. Like he has been completely forgotten.

They are talking about probation for this child. And that is something that is going to be, I think that is just setting the entire community up for failure with that. That’s opinion, that’s not fact.

But the other day my daughter went and visited her cousin and she came home and this was the first time that she’s really shown a ton of emotion. But she came home and she tried to joke with Major and he didn’t get the jokes. He didn’t understand. He got shot through his frontal lobe and he does not have humor anymore. The humor is gone. He doesn’t understand it.

He went from being a 14-year-old boy to literally cutting his age in half and being a seven-year-old boy.

And these are things that we have to deal with. And we are not being served by the system, at all. We do not feel supported by the system. We don’t feel served by the system. And that’s basically, that’s why I’m here. I don’t know where to go.

Presenter: HRC Chair Dr. Silky Booker:

Dr. Silky Booker: I want to be the first to say thank you, Laurel, for coming and sharing your story with us. And I want to let you know up front, although we are an advisory commission, I still believe in it’s an injustice not to be heard. And as a commission, that’s the least we can do is be the voice for the community.

And when you reached out to me, I did explain to you that we are just an advisory commission. But I told you I would do everything in my power to make sure that your voice was heard and that Major doesn’t feel forgotten. And any fellow Eugenian who hears and sees this (because these meetings are recorded) should definitely feel some empathy and want to support you and your family and Major in some capacity.

This is not the first time I will say that Black youth in Eugene have been shot, beaten to the point of needing surgery. There was another young Black 14-year-old named Julian, whose mother came to me before. And he’s autistic, and he was beaten to the point where his brain was caved in.

Again, the offender wasn’t charged. It seems to be a problem when it’s Black youth in Eugene and our justice system seeing them like they see white kids.

And it’s not unheard of for me. I’ve seen it, and I’ve heard it. And when you keep constantly seeing and hearing this, it’s a pattern. So there’s an invisible pattern that isn’t being seen or addressed. And it’s because of stories like you, Ms. Shaw, that are unheard, that these, what I call lags or road bumps in the system can be addressed.

So thank you so much for sharing your story. I do hope—

Laurel Shaw: Thank you for allowing me to share the story. Like, I don’t know who to talk to. Unfortunately, you know, we just don’t, there’s the representation isn’t here. And I am—we feel very, very forgotten in this. Very forgotten, very left behind, uninformed.

The detective who interviewed Major, it took him two months to interview Major. And then he had the nerve to ask my sister, Major’s mom: ‘Is he always this dismissive?’

And she said, ‘No, sir, not before his traumatic brain injury.’

Like, he was not treated well. It’s been a horrible experience.

Dr. Silky Booker: Yeah, I can imagine. And the frustration and anger I feel—because it’s a repeated process that keeps happening to Black youth within Eugene school systems. And it trickles over into after school, you know.

But it definitely starts, a lot of this stuff starts within the schools and is not addressed properly in the schools because Black youth aren’t given the same attention as victims as white students are. And that’s just the truth of the nature.

Also: I’m also about educating people and your DA has to be voted in. All the people that are in these particular offices have to be voted in. I would say get with your fellow community members. And that’s one way to change, is to make sure that people are in place that actually are going to defend all youth, not just white youth.

I feel like there’s this big protection blanket going on for white youth and white men going on right now. And it’s not being addressed. It’s being ignored heavily. And it shows. It trickled down all the way to our kids within the school system. So please let Major know that I care, our commission cares. And I’m glad that I was able to give you an opportunity to speak and talk about Major today.

Laurel Shaw: I thank you so much for this opportunity.

Dr. Silky Booker: No worries. And again, reach out to me in a couple of weeks again if you feel like a lot of the suggestions end up being dead-end streets.

Presenter: That’s Laurel Shaw speaking to the Human Rights Commission about the shooting of her nephew.