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2 mothers feel pain of a teen's shooting
By TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer
View related 10 News video: TAMPA -- On a city sidewalk, a mother held her son's hand as his life slipped away. Jabbard Anthony, 14, had been shot by a friend's father. Bystanders said it was an accident.
"I know I'm gonna die," Jabbard told her. "Don't die," she said. "You can't leave me." Jabbard was pronounced dead at Tampa General Hospital at about 11 p.m. Wednesday. Police arrested Tyron Debaron Williams, 46, on charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child. He remained in the Hillsborough County jail late Thursday. Jabbard was shot while standing near kids who had gotten into a fight with Williams' son. He was an innocent bystander, said Sgt. Jim Simonson. Williams had heard about the kids hassling his son and confronted them at 12th Street at 15th Avenue, across the street from Jabbard's house, police said. Williams took a gun out of his waistband. Detectives said he was going to fire the weapon in the air to scare the kids. "He fired the first shot on an upswing of his arm," Simonson said. "The victim was hit with a bullet in the abdomen." When she heard the shot, Madeline Clayton was in her second-floor apartment, making Jabbard's favorite dinner of chicken drumsticks and potatoes with cheese. "We heard bang real loud," said Tim Talbert, Clayton's husband and Jabbard's stepfather. "It startled us. This is not a neighborhood where you hear gunshots all the time." Clayton looked out the window and saw a man in the street with a gun. Talbert said they ran downstairs and found Jabbard on the ground. Jabbard's 11-year-old brother, who also was outside, ran when he saw the gun, Talbert said. Police said Williams stood on the street and dialed 911. So did Talbert, who said it seemed the ambulance took a long time to arrive.
Fire Rescue officials said the emergency call came in at 9:17 p.m. Crews were there in four minutes and on their way to the hospital with the teen at 9:29 p.m. Thursday morning, Talbert and his family spoke with detectives and awaited relatives' arrival from up north. The couple, Jabbard and his brother moved to Tampa from New Jersey eight months ago. Jabbard was an eighth-grader at Memorial Middle School. He had lots of friends, Talbert said. Girls called the house often. "They called him the J-Man," he said. Jabbard loved stereos and loud speakers, and was to install a new car stereo in his mother's Geo. The family attends Mount Moriah Church on Nebraska Avenue, where Jabbard was baptized last week. A service will be planned when his body is released from the Medical Examiner's Office. Madeline Clayton's voice was hoarse Thursday. From her window, she could see people placing flowers in memory of her son along the chain-link fence that lined the sidewalk. Someone had taken a swatch of yellow crime scene tape and tied it in a bow around the fence. In an empty lot nearby, political candidates had staked their campaign signs, promising a better neighborhood, a better city, a better future. A block away, at a house on 13th Street, another mother grieved. Martha Williams said her son, Tyron, didn't mean to kill Jabbard. Tyron Williams of 10133 Hunters Point Court in Town 'N Country has no arrest record in Florida. His mother said he was a loving son and father. "It had to be an accident," she said. "My son is not a monster."
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