Woman fighting for change after daughter killed in 2021 Kansas City shooting
An Independence woman is now the guardian of her grandson after her daughter was killed – but that was just the start of her troubles. Davetta Whitmill's daughter, Deja Veal, was shot and killed in 2021 in Kansas City, Missouri. Whitmill is now raising her grandchild and advocating for changes to current laws to ensure other families don't have to endure similar situations. She is demanding mandatory minimum sentences for violent crime offenders and more free resources like legal aid or financial help for those in her situation. She also criticizes Deja's Law, which removes a child support order once a custodial parent is murdered, dies, or whatever the case may be, Whitmill was also told she would have to file for child support with her own information. The suspected shooter pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and is set for parole in 2015.
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She’s raising her grandchild after someone shot and killed her daughter in March of 2021 in Kansas City, Missouri. That’s hard enough, but certain laws make it even harder.
She’s demanding changes in those laws so other families don’t have to endure what she’s been through.
It’s been three years since the deadly shooting. Three years without her daughter. Three years solely raising her grandson and three years fighting for change.
The last three years, Davetta Whitmill really hasn’t had time to grieve after her daughter Deja Veal was shot and killed in Kansas City in 2021.
“We got to see videos from my daughter that night. A video on her Snapchat at 9 p.m. of her in the car singing and laughing and talking and we knew she didn’t expect it,” Whitmill said.
Deja left behind a son who was 4 years old at the time, he’s now seven. Whitmill, his legal guardian.
“I wasn’t expecting to be a single parent at 53, 54 years old,” she said.
Not long after the shooting, news reports state the suspected shooter was arrested for possessing a firearm and second-degree murder.
“I even had my victim impact statement written, I had that written immediately,” Whitmill said. “I never got a chance to say it. I never got the chance to meet him, I never got the chance to ask why.”
She may not get that chance now, court records show he plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. She said he goes up for parole in 2015.
Whitmill said she was not told about the deal before it was made.
“I really haven’t had the chance to grieve my daughter because I am on a mission now,” she said. “I have a fight now.”
That fight includes mandatory minimum sentences for violent crime offenders and creating more free resources like legal aid or financial help for people in her situation.
“When you get that packet in the mail after your child is murdered, they have all these different resources but they don’t tell you, you have to qualify for this or stipulations,” she said.
It also includes Deja’s Law, which is aimed at child support, Whitmill says at the time of her daughter’s murder, Deja had a child support case on the non-custodial parent.
“What we found out the hard way was once a custodial parent is murdered, dies, or whatever the case may be, the child support order goes away,” Whitmill said.
She was also told she’d have to file for child support with her own information. She wants to keep the original order in place.
She has received some responses, including one from U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who stated he co-sponsored a bill aimed at firearms crimes and sentencing.
But Whitmill said she needs more people to listen and action needs to be taken.
“As we know with this crime rate, it is going to be more grandparents like me over and over again,” she said.
Whitmill is working on getting help starting a program specifically for kids who lost a parent to violence crime.
She wants them to have someone like a big brother or sister. Something cheering them on and helping them when the grandparents can’t.
Onderwerpen: Crime