EXCLUSIVE: Heartbroken Mother Of 16-Year-Old Kanye Davis Speaks After Son Shot 8 Times, Killed
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The gun violence crisis in Philadelphia has left a permanent mark in the hearts of another family. A mother is talking only to CBS3 about her son who was shot and killed Sunday night.
Police sources say 16-year-old Kanye Davis was sitting in an enclosed set of stairs when two cars drove down Diamond Street and opened fire. Sources described it as an ambush-style hit.
"It was just me and him over the years. We were always together," Tiffany Phillips, Kanye's mother, said.
Phillips allowed CBS3 inside her Strawberry Mansion row home in what is an unbearably painful time. Photos hang proudly, recalling happier times with her son.
But on Monday, Eyewitness News was there to talk about this young man and the vicious way in which he was killed on the other side of town.
Kanye Davis was 16. Mom says he was due to meet up with a friend Sunday night. Kanye was found shot eight times at 4th and Diamond Streets.
"My only child. I had him at eight months. He was supposed to be March. He was born in February, the day after Valentine's Day," Phillips said.
Kanye was in the 11th grade at Strawberry Mansion High.
Mom and son relocated here from Southwest Philadelphia, where she recalls not letting Kanye out of her sight.
She described those "mean streets" and her work to keep him safe as he grew up. With a smile, she told us about a time Kanye defied her.
"He was very eager and trying to grow up real fast. He said, 'Mom, I want a tattoo.' I said no. He went and got a tattoo with my name on him," Phillips said.
This mother had no harsh words for police or politicians, just an agonizing sense of what was next in this life now without her only child.
"I know I'm not going to be all right. I know I'm not going to be all right," she said.
The shooting was captured on video.
For a list of gun violence resources in Philadelphia, click here
