CHICAGO — Officials have been unable to determine exactly what happened at an Edgewater apartment last month when a 13-year-old boy suffered a fatal gunshot wound.
Ashawn Davis died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office found. But the manner of his death is listed as “undetermined,” meaning investigators could not conclude whether he shot himself or someone else shot him. “Undetermined” is one of four modes of death assigned by the medical examiner. The other three are homicide, accidental and suicide.
Chicago police officers responded to an apartment in the 6000 block of North Kenmore on August 11 around 8:18 p.m. They found Ashawn with a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators discovered that several other men, mostly teenage boys, were in the room at the time of the shooting. At least one person told police that Ashawn had shot himself, but an initial report said investigators found no weapon at the scene. One shell casing was recovered and there was a bullet hole in the ceiling.
Ashawn’s uncle, Shawn Childs, founded the company House of Hope Foundationan organization that works to prevent violence in the city.
“He was a kid from a bad environment, so I put him in my foundation,” Childs said told the Sun-Times last month. “He wasn’t a perfect teenager, but he wasn’t a bad kid either.”
Ashawn’s mother, Teba Stewart, told the newspaper that Ashawn was named after his uncle. She said she and Ashawn moved to Iowa a few years ago to escape the violence in Chicago, but moved back to be closer to family.
