Javion is 10 years old. On September 7, he was playing at Brittany Woods Apartments in Valdosta, Georgia, when police say another child, a 9-year-old, got hold of a gun and shot him in the face. The younger boy now faces juvenile charges, and his mother, 46-year-old Andrea McClendon, is charged with second-degree cruelty to children and reckless conduct. She turned herself in at the Lowndes County Jail on September 14.
Javion has been home for weeks now and is back in school, but his mother, Marshania English, says he sits out PE and needs ongoing therapy. A GoFundMe is collecting donations for his dental care, including possible veneers. What English keeps coming back to is proximity: McClendon still lives a few houses away, and English says she has not been told of any court date. “I feel like my son has been shot, and no justice has been served,” she told reporters this week.
The case raises questions that follow families everywhere, not just in Valdosta. How should guns be stored in homes where kids play? What does accountability look like when the person who pulled the trigger is 9? And how do two families living on the same street move forward while a case is still pending? If you want to help, the family’s GoFundMe is linked through local coverage. What would you want to see happen next in this case?
