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Vigil Held For 17-Year-Old Shot By St. Petersburg Officer

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By KRISTA KLAUS News Channel 8

and RAY REYES The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2008

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  Javon Dawson

ST. PETERSBURG - Family and community members gathered Wednesday night to remember a 17-year-old Gibbs High School student shot and killed by a police officer over the weekend.

Holding candles and signs, relatives and friends stood where Javon Dawson was fatally shot and remembered a teen who they said had a bright future.

"Javon had never been arrested, never had any problems at all with the police department, never had any kind of confrontation at all," said Omali Yeshitela, leader of The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement.

Police say Dawson pointed a gun at an officer during a graduation party on Saturday. Yeshitela said that is not true.

"Obviously it's a lie," he said. "The fact is nobody saw that except the cop that killed him. And nobody's saying that except the police department."

Led by the Uhuru Movement, family and friends held the vigil, partly to grieve, partly to protest Saturday's shooting. Ollie Godfrey, Dawson's stepmother, called on the crowd to never forget Javon's death.

"This has been going on for years, and if people don't stick together, that's why things die down," Godfrey said.

Police say the officer fired the gun in self-defense. The officer is on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure, pending an internal investigation.

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