File this under unbelievable, but a 46 year old white man in Texas shot an 8 year old African American boy in the state of Texas. The boy is still in the fight of his life as you can imagine and at this moment there is no motive on why the shooting occurred.
Everyone is just in agreement that this is sad and our hearts and prayers go out to this young man and his family.
This past Sunday was Donald Maiden Jr’s 8th birthday. He was a playful child doing what children do best, play, on this faithful day.
His grandmother said he was playing outside when he came back in the house to gather some toys. On his way back out the door, he was shot in the face by Brian Cloninger.
It was noted by a witness that Cloninger was waiving his handgun around at people before he shot Donald. This was reported by the Dallas Morning News.
From The Raw Story: Police reports said that Cloninger was seen standing beside his pickup truck as the boy was bleeding, and a witness asked him if he shot the boy.
“Yes I shot that kid,” Cloninger reportedly said.
Maiden’s mother, Latamarin Locklin, recalled the aftermath of the shooting to KTVT on Thursday.
“When he ran in I just screamed,” she said. “His mouth was just hanging off and it was just a big hole… I just threw him on the couch and laid him in my arms and put pressure on his mouth with the towel.”
Locklin couldn’t understand why anyone would shoot her child “out of the blue.”
Maiden was in critical but stable condition as of Thursday. He still needed a breathing tube and had a plate in his jaw. He he could wink and nod to communicate, but could not talk. The boy was expected to have more surgeries after swelling from the most-recent surgeries goes down.
Hopefully, someone is able to get to the bottom of this tragedy soon. Cloninger is being held on a $2.2 million dollar bond and charged with injury to a child. Can’t understand why attempted murder or at least manslaughter isn’t added to his case, but I will admit i’m not a lawyer and have no legal background.
As a parent, this really concerns me because I grew up in a era when kids went outside and I long for those days for my child. My wife and I often encourage our children to go outside, but it is incidences like this that make us relieved he doesn’t. Yes, we know you can’t hide them from the world forever, but this tragedy is just too much.
Please send your thoughts and prayers up for Donald Maiden Jr and his family. They are going to need it on hi long journey to recovery.
This world is going crazy first Trevon Martin the young man at the gas station now this and many more kill by the hand of white men for nothing and the white world think it a joke
May God bless this family and look over this child and the doctor’s hands that is taking care of him. God will deal with that man, my justice come upon him is my prayer.