15-year-old boy who was gunned down worked with anti-violence program

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - A San Francisco mother is preparing for the funeral of her 15-year-old son on Friday, and she’s trying to come to terms with the tragic end to her baby’s life.

“I can’t understand because all he was doing was walking home,” Sha’ray Johnson said of her son, Day'von Hann, who was shot to death in the Mission on July 8. “All he was doing was walking home.. I don’t know…because of my skin color. Because of where we live. I don’t get it.”

In an emotional interview Thursday at her son’s wake, Johnson said she did everything in her power to raise  her boys the right way in public housing. But it was important to her that they become good people.  And she said her son rarely, if ever, got into any trouble. In fact, her son worked with a youth gun violence prevention group, called United Playaz. 

“He was a good human,” Johnson said. “He's never hurt nobody, never been suspended or expelled.  He didn't get into fights  He was loved by those who knew him and those who didn't.” 
 
Day’von had just completed 9th grade at Lincoln High School and was enjoying summer vacation when it came to a sudden end. He was on 24th at Capp streets, two blocks from home, when the bullets came flying just after midnight. Johnson said her son was out getting something to eat with friends. 

When officers arrived, they found the teen shot, and saw a vehicle leaving the scene.  Police  gave chase but lost sight of the vehicle when it got on the  highway.  Investigators say they do not know if Day'von was the intended target. No one has been arrested.

Johnson, a single mom, said she worked hard to make sure Day’von and his older brother were 
polite and respectable young men and she worked with them to help them overcome any negative perceptions of black teenagers. 

“That my babies were going to be thugs...uneducated or out here being a statistic. I did everything I could in my power that they were honorable young men,” she said through tears.
  
Johnson said she enrolled Day'von into afterschool and youth development programs that promoted education since he was a little boy. 

“He loved to brighten up a room,” she said. “Just by walking in, he could just come up to you out of nowhere and make you smile. His presence was very strong for only being here 15 years.” 

As for what she would tell the person or people who killed her son? 

“You might not like somebody or you might not agree with them,” she said. “But you don't have a right to do this. Nobody has the right to play God.”  
  
Day’von’s funeral is at 9 a.m. on Friday at Cornerstone Baptist Church in the San Francisco Bayview.