This week started with a 13-year-old boy wounded by gunfire at a bus stop in Des Moines.
Police say it appears he was the victim of a random shooting. Now, a mother who has also been touched by that kind of violence wants to point out what the two cases have in common.
"I'm looking at the similarities, a metro bus stop. My baby was 12. This baby is 13. Both of them are shot. Both of them are asking for help, and no one initially will help,” said Ayanna Brown.
Brown lost her son, Alajawan, in 2010. The 12-year-old on his way home from buying football cleats with money he'd saved up when a gang member saw him.
"He gets out of his car in broad daylight and shoots and kills my baby for no other reason but to be wearing a blue jacket," said Brown.
She says her son begged people for help after he was shot.
"At least three people that I know of denied him the help," said Brown.
One man did move in to steal Alajawan's new football cleats.
"That ripped out the little piece of my heart that I had left," Brown said.
Despite her tremendous grief, she made a decision. The end of her son's life would be the beginning of a quest for compassion.
"Because he said he wanted to make a difference in his community and he talked about it all the time," said Brown. "My husband and I just picked up where he left off."
The couple started Alajawan's Hands. A foundation focused on helping kids have a brighter future.
This week, a notice from the Tukwila School District, where Brown used to work as a bus driver, caught her attention. A 13-year-old boy was shot in the arm while waiting for a metro bus to take him to school. Police say it appears to be a random shooting. It happened before 7 a.m. Monday. The school district says the boy asked bystanders for help and, at first, was denied.
The boy is now recovering, and his family says they hope in the future people are more understanding of those obviously needing help. It's a message close to Brown’s heart.
"If you see something, say something," she said.
In both cases, Good Samaritans eventually did help the boys, but the initial lack of responsiveness concerns the families. Brown says she hopes in the future people would at lease call 911 during that kind of emergency.
