Marietta mom Lucia McBath, whose 17-year-old son was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store during a 2012 argument over loud music, is expected Tuesday night to address the Democratic National Convention about the loss of her son to gun violence.
Speaking from Philadelphia, where she had already landed, McBath said she be standing on the main stage with other mothers who have lost children in clashes with the police or in gun violence and sharing "just a little bit about my son, who he was, how my life has change since he was murdered."
"I basically want to say from a mother’s perspective that my son’s life mattered and still matters and I am completely in agreement that Sec. Clinton is the candidate to deal with the gun culture we have in this country."
McBath said that while her son's death was devastating, it also galvanized her into action. She now works with Everytown for Gun Safety, a national gun-control group that's active in Georgia, and is a member of the Everytown Survivor Network traveling the country speaking on the issue.
"This is all a new normal for me," McBath said. "First thing, I won't see my son have children; I won't have grandchildren. I won't see him walk down the aisle. I have to build his legacy now, and now I'm living out the legacy I tried to teach him and train him to be."
McBath's son, Jordan Davis, was shot in November 2012 after he and three friends in an SUV outside a convenience store in Jacksonville, Fla., were confronted by Michael Dunn, 47 , who objected to their loud music. Dunn and his fiancee had come to the store for a bottle of wine after leaving his son's wedding.
In February 2014, jurors deadlocked on a first-degree murder charge against Dunn and found him guilty on three counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to 60 years on that conviction. In a second trial on Davis' death that September, Dunn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Dunn, who is white, fired 10 times into the sport utility vehicle, killing Davis, who was black. Dunn claimed he fired in self-defense after he was threatened with a shotgun by someone in the vehicle. No second weapon was ever discovered.
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