Father of Slain Teen Jordan Davis Wants to Visit Michael Dunn in Prison
Feb. 19, 2014— -- The father of Jordan Davis, the Florida teen who was fatally shot by Michael Dunn over loud music, said he wants to visit his son's killer in prison and "make him understand" what he did was wrong.
"I would like Michael Dunn to put me on his visitor's list in prison. I would like to go see him and sit across the table," Ron Davis told ABC's Byron Pitts in an interview for "Nightline." "One thing that I know that we would talk about is, 'I have to try to make you understand what you've taken away from our family, some way, whether it be words or what, I have to make you understand.'"
Davis' 17-year-old son Jordan was killed by Michael Dunn, 47, when they argued over loud music in a convenience store parking lot on Nov. 23, 2012. Over the weekend, a jury found Dunn guilty of attempted murder for firing into the car where Davis and other teens were sitting, but were deadlocked on whether Dunn was guilty of murder. Dunn claimed he fired in self-defense.
Jordan's parents said they plan to fight for Dunn to be retried for their son's killing.
"We will go back to court," said Jordan's mother, Lucia McBath. "We're definitely going back to fight for Jordan."
"We have to make him say that, 'you killed Jordan and it was unlawful,'" Davis added. "Because otherwise if you leave it, then you killed Jordan and it was OK that you killed Jordan."
Davis said he learned his son had been shot when he got a call from the mother of Jordan's friend who had been sitting next to the slain teen in the car when the shooting happened.
"I was going to go down to the gas station, and she said, 'No, they've taken him in an ambulance. Go to the… hospital,'" Davis said. "And that was the worst drive of my life, because... you're hoping and praying for the best that he just had a flesh wound or something like that. You're hoping for anything."
When Davis got to the hospital, he said his son's name wasn't in the patient registry. The teenager had come in without any identification because his wallet had been left behind at the scene. Davis said he approached a chaplain in the emergency room, showed her a picture of his son on his phone and asked her if she had seen him.
"She came back with the doctor and two policemen, and all I remember hearing the doctor say is, 'Mr. Davis, I'm so sorry, we were unable to revive.' And he said a whole lot of stuff after that, but that's all I heard,'" Davis said.
"When I saw [Jordan], he was laying there peacefully, had a little blood on his nose," Davis continued. "They told me not to touch him, you know, because it's a homicide investigation, and I said, 'I'm going to touch my son.' And I hugged him and I squeezed him…and that was the last time I saw my son."
McBath and Davis said on "Good Morning America" today they have drawn support from Trayvon Martin's parents, who went through a similar ordeal after George Zimmerman was found not guilty last year in the shooting death of their 17-year-old son.
"I'm in constant contact with Tracy Martin, Trayvon's father, and I text Sabrina (Trayvon's mother) all the time and I just want to let them know, every time I get justice for Jordan, it's going to be justice for Trayvon, for us," Davis said.
One of the jurors in the Michael Dunn trial -- who asked to be identified simply as "Valerie" -- told "Nightline" in an exclusive interview Tuesday night that three jurors determined Dunn was justified in shooting Davis. The deadlock prompted shouting matches, said Valerie, who wanted a murder conviction.
"A life was taken. There is no longer a Jordan Davis, and there is only one reason why that is. The boy was shot and killed for reasons that should not have happened," Valerie said.
Jordan's parents said they took Valerie's speaking out as reassurance that the jurors took the case seriously.
"I really think those comments were designed to let us know, 'we fought. We didn't take it lightly,'" McBath said.
