We should have done better by Jayden Evans. The 3-year-old Atlanta boy died Nov. 8 in a home filled with adults in the 100 block of Campbell Street off Memorial Drive. He was struck in the chest by a bullet from a gun that discharged as he played on a bed.
Jayden was the second child to die that week in an accidental shooting. A 3-year-old boy in Cherokee County found a gun tucked under a mattress and shot his 5-year-old sister, Morgan King.
When children die violently, the newspaper should pay attention — and for the most part we do. Two Metro front stories and one editorial were written about the Cherokee shooting. Jayden’s death was covered with a short story inside the Metro section, prompting reader Earl Williamson to question why more wasn’t written.
Metro editor Bert Roughton said the timing of the shooting, right after the election, may have contributed to the lack of follow-up. Access to information may have also been a problem.
Williamson, president of the Kirkwood Neighborhood Association, said there is more to the story. “We’ve been dealing with problems on this street for a long time. There are code issues and there are safety issues.” Vacant and dilapidated homes line one side of the street, he said.
Before Jayden’s death, police had been called to the house once on a noncriminal matter, said Atlanta police Officer Steve Coleman. But neighbors say the house appears to be a hotbed of drug activity.
“When you have an episode like this, there is a natural inclination to feel sympathetic toward the parents or the adults involved,” Williamson said. “Sometimes, that sympathy is highly misplaced, and because of that the context of the occurrence gets lost. My biggest question: What the hell was a loaded gun doing on a bed with a kid?”
Jayden’s death has been ruled accidental. No charges have been filed. Maj. Lane Hagin said the gun was in plain view of the child. The gun had a safety, but it wasn’t installed properly.
Like Williamson, I believe there is more to this story. In a house filled with adults, why didn’t someone protect Jayden?
While the newspaper can’t write about every violent act that occurs in metro Atlanta, when a child dies under these circumstances, we should take our watchdog role more seriously.
• AJC election coverage, Part II: A few readers took me up on my offer to provide feedback on the newspaper’s election coverage.
One reader suggested that the newspaper give more explanation of constitutional amendment questions and little-known posts, such as county soil conservation officers.
Another reader suggested that the AJC publish its Voters Guide sooner. The guide was posted on ajc.com in mid-October and ran in the print edition on the Thursday before the election. Moving up the guide’s publication is worth considering, since more voters are taking advantage of early and absentee voting.
On the national election front, Larry Taylor of Marietta took the newspaper to task for “allowing Democratic leaders to run on a generic policy of change in Iraq, without ever helping [readers] to know what change they were for, as well as the pros and cons of the proposed change.”
Taylor complimented the newspaper on a Nov. 10 front-page story that outlined Democratic strategy and offered pros and cons on various options in Iraq, but he blasted editors for publishing the story after the election. Voters knew exactly where President Bush stood on the issue, he said, “so where was the balance?”
Said AJC national editor Arthur Brice, “I don’t recall the Democrats articulating any one Iraq policy. Most were rather vague about it, other than to say what we’re doing is not working. The few who called for an immediate withdrawal, such as Rep. John Murtha, received extensive coverage. There was certainly no unified Democratic position on the issue.”
Bush’s policy was easier to characterize because it was evident from what the United States was doing on the ground in Iraq and because he talked openly about it, said Brice.
Still, Taylor’s criticism is a valid one. Reporters should have pressed Democrats harder on their plans.
