Back. Of. The. Leg.

Click on picture for video.

Whadda you know. Baby might have been telling the truth, after all.

And the Omaha Police Department just might have stepped in it. Again. Because it's starting to look like some officers just might think they have Negro-hunting licenses. Maybe.

According to the attorney representing Marcel Davis, Jr., police shot the 14-year-old in the back of the calf. Davis said he was running from the cops and had thrown his stolen gun away after bailing from the vehicle in which he rode.

Omaha cops and the county attorney say he pulled a gun on the officer, and the cop did what he had to do.

PERHAPS IT'S POSSIBLE to get shot in the back of the leg by a cop while you're pointing your handgun at him, but only if you're really, really into yoga or happen to be Nadia Comăneci. Or, at least, so it seems to me.

The Omaha World-Herald covers Davis' first court appearance:

Davis was shot in the leg by Officer Nicholas Andrews near 48th and Boyd Streets. Davis had run from a Chrysler Cirrus that Andrews and Officer Alan Peatrowsky stopped after they spotted the car being driven without its headlights on and with an expired license plate.

During the foot chase, police said, Davis turned and pointed a gun at Andrews, and Andrews fired at Davis hitting him once in the leg. He was treated at Creighton University Medical Center.

The firearm that Davis is accused of carrying is a Smith & Wesson 9 mm pistol that was reported stolen on June 2.

Gallup said Davis told him that he had tossed the gun in the bushes and ran from police. He also told Gallup that the bullet pierced his right calf.

"He was shot in the back of the leg, not front," Gallup said.

IT'S NOT LIKE Omaha police have a great track record in this area, with fatal shootings that sparked a major riot back in the day and almost got us there a decade ago. Not to mention this, of course.

Oh, before I go, I just wanted to note that Baby's daddy's baby mama is still a freakin' piece of work. And the rest of that fractured whateveryoucallit, too:

Before the court hearing, Alethea Goynes, the boy's mother, got into a shouting argument with the girlfriend of Marcel Davis Sr. just outside the courtroom. Security escorted the girlfriend outside.

POOR KID probably never had a chance. And now look at him. I almost wish that, instead of locking up Baby, we could instead lock up the pair who sired and whelped him, then called it good.

And then maybe the court could send that benighted duo's most unfortunate offspring to Girls and Boys Town for a chance at a do-over.

Don't feed us a line, show us the pictures

Omaha's police chief says nuh uhhhh, one of his officers did too shoot a teen-age suspect in the front of the leg, not the back, because the kid did too aim his gun at the pursuing policeman.

Marcel Davis Jr.'s lawyer, Bill Gallup, had alleged the Omaha cop gunned his client down from behind, saying the teen reported having thrown the gun away before he got shot. Here's the latest report from the Omaha World-Herald:

Photos from a medical examination of the gunshot wound sustained by a 14-year-old boy showed the bullet entered the front of the boy's leg, not the back, Police Chief Thomas Warren said today.

Warren offered the information in light of a statement made Thursday by J. William Gallup, the attorney for Marcel Davis Jr. Davis was in court after he was accused of pointing a gun at a police officer as he was being chased from a car that police had stopped near 48th and Boyd Streets.

The police officer, Nicholas Andrews, fired at Davis, hitting him once in the leg. A loaded 9 mm pistol was found at the scene. The gun was reported stolen June 2.

Davis was charged Thursday with attempted first-degree assault on an officer, use of a firearm to commit a felony and possession of a stolen firearm. Douglas County Judge Stephen Swartz set bail at $100,000. Davis would have to post 10 percent, or $10,000, to be released.

Gallup, after Thursday's court hearing for Davis, said his client told him that the bullet pierced his right calf. "He was shot in the back of the leg, not front," Gallup said.

Warren said today that's not what crime lab photographs from the medical exam show.

According to the photos, Warren said, "the entry was to the front of the leg, to the shin area, approximately 4 inches below the kneecap . . . There was no entry sustained to the rear or the calf area.

"There is no injury to the rear of his leg."

Gallup, when contacted today, said he isn't disputing the medical report. "My client said he got hit in the rear area of the leg," he said. "His position is that he was running away. He did not point a gun at the policeman."

Gallup said that Davis told him he threw the gun in some bushes as he got out of the car because he didn't want to get caught with a gun. Gallup said witnesses would confirm that account.

Officer Bill Dropinski, a police spokesman, said today that the gun was found near Davis when he was apprehended, "not back by the car."

Gallup said police are taught to shoot assailants in the chest because that's the biggest target. Andrews, he said, shot Davis in the leg "either because he's a poor shot or he was simply trying to stop a guy he was chasing . . . He did not perceive the kid to be a threat, he was just hitting him in the leg to halt his flight."

I LOVE THE SMELL of a good pissing match in the afternoon. Then again, no, I guess I don't . . . ewww. Whom do you believe?

In one corner, we have one of the best criminal-defense attorneys in the Midwest, working like hell on behalf of a client who screwed up but good. You pretty much know the kid is guilty of something.

A good defense attorney usually doesn't go off half-cocked when it matters. Or if he does, it's usually calculatingly half-cocked. And he says he has witnesses, who at the time also complained to local TV reporters that the officer had no reason to shoot the kid.

In the opposite corner, you have Tom Warren, chief of the troubled Omaha Police Department. Bill Gallup is a better lawyer than Tom Warren is a police chief.

Warren presides over a department that's had a problem with rogue cops and a culture of intimidating minorities and, sometimes, brutality. More than one -- more than two . . . more than three -- African-Americans in Omaha have been shot and killed by police under questionable circumstances over the past 35 years or so.

And recently, one Omaha cop was convicted of sexual assault on a local prostitute.

Despite all this, Warren and the mayor's office are quick to completely exonerate police whenever anyone complains about their actions and completely demonize the complainer. All before anyone -- even OPD internal-affairs officers -- has had a chance to thoroughly investigate anything.

THE OMAHA COP SHOP has problems. The teen-aged knucklehead has problems -- big ones -- not counting the two he's had since conception. Whom do you believe?

Is "None of the above" an option?

Here's the bottom line: If Tom Warren wants us to believe his version of the truth, he needs to pony up the medical report and the accompanying pictures. He also needs a third-party investigation to vouch for his officer's actions.

Because while a little hoodlum who got on the wrong end of some hot lead from an Omaha cop may have little to no credibility, what emanates from Omaha police headquarters nowadays scarcely has more.

Baby got dead. We're so shocked.

Baby will be wearing his grillz to his own funeral.

His mama says Marcel Davis Jr., 16, was picking up a set of dental bling when he got gunned down at a north Omaha grillz and jewelry emporium. He was planning to wear them to the funeral of an incompetent armed robber.

What some say -- and what the cops aren't saying -- suggests there's a lot more to the story.

But what is incontrovertible is that if Baby had had a crappy lawyer a year and change ago, he'd be alive right now. In November 2007, Davis had been charged as an adult after allegedly pointing a stolen handgun at an Omaha police officer he was fleeing.

The cop shot him in the leg. Tuesday night, somebody had better aim.

Between assault and using a firearm to commit a felony, the teen could have been in jail a long, long time. Instead, ace defense attorney Bill Gallup got the case assigned to juvenile court, and young Davis recently emerged from the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center.

AND NOW he and a 29-year-old are dead after going to fetch some grillz, it says in today's Omaha World-Herald:

Marcel Davis, a Northwest High School sophomore, planned to wear his new grill at a funeral today, a great aunt said.

Instead, the family is mourning his death after police met with his mother outside the shooting scene this morning and confirmed what relatives already knew — Davis was shot to death at the Midwest Grillz & Jewelry store just before 10:30 p.m.

William J. “Willie” Wakefield, 29, also was killed at the store, police said. Davis’s great aunt said her nephew had gone to Midwest Grillz with an older friend. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Wakefield was that friend.

A third person was being treated at Creighton University Medical Center for a gunshot wound suffered at the scene, 6209 Ames Ave. Brandon Boyce, 22, of Omaha, walked into the hospital about a half hour after the shooting.

Police would not say what connection any of the three have to the shooting. Police also would not give details about what happened inside the store.

Preliminary police dispatch reports centered on a robbery attempt. Police today said they were seeking no suspects and had made no arrests.

(snip)

Her nephew planned to wear it to the funeral today of a man killed while committing a robbery a couple weeks back, his aunt said.

Kyles said her nephew would not have been part of a robbery. He had been in trouble, she said, but he didn’t rob.

NO, HE JUST rode around in stolen cars and pulled stolen guns on Omaha cops. But noooo. . . .

"'Yeah, he got into some trouble, all kids do that, but as far as anything, he’s a good boy,'” Baby's mama, Alethea Goynes, told WOWT television today. “'He don’t want for nothing, he don’t steal from nobody or nothing.'"

It's never the little darling's fault, is it? No matter how long the rap sheet.

But if the store owner's father is giving KMTV television the straight scoop, Baby either was in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time, or he decided to add armed robbery to his repertoire . . . and it didn't work out.

The store's owner Andre McKesson tells his family three men came into the store about 10:30, one had a gun. McKesson claims he fired at the three men to save his own life. McKesson's father Flynn Franklin tells Action 3 News, "He was just trying to protect himself. Three guys tried to rob him and two got shot." Omaha Police have not confirmed the family's account of what may have happened in the store; police have said they are not looking for a suspect.

A YEAR and change ago, Goynes thought everything might work out for her baby boy:

"I hope he gets back on track and does the right thing," Goynes said. "I think this scared him. Hopefully, when it's all over, he can get back on track and go back to school and be the boy I know he is."

HE DIDN'T. In this case, you not only can cut the irony with a knife, you can slice it six ways from Sunday.

At any rate, all that counts now is that Marcel Davis Jr. died the boy we knew him to be -- the boy he was doomed to be through (lack of) nurture and (a deviant) popular culture. That's a tragedy.

And given how the Mother of the Year acted at one of Baby's hearings in late 2007, his funeral will be anything but dull.

Growing up feral

It's a damn shame that some parents can't be thrown in jail alongside their feral offspring.

Yeah, I realize that some parents don't deserve such a fate, because they do what they can and just can't overcome the odds. But on the other hand, something tells me this, as reported in the Omaha World-Herald, ain't one of those cases:

The 14-year-old boy accused of pointing a gun at a police officer has been charged as an adult, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said today.

Marcel Davis, who turns 15 next month, was charged today with attempted first-degree assault on an officer, use of a firearm to commit a felony and possession of a stolen firearm, Kleine said.

Davis was shot in the leg by Officer Nicholas Andrews early Tuesday near 48th and Boyd Streets. Davis had fled from a Chrysler Cirrus that Andrews and Officer Alan Peatrowsky stopped after they spotted the car driving without headlights on and with an expired license plate.

During the foot chase, police said, Davis turned and pointed a gun at Andrews and Andrews fired at him, hitting him once in the leg. Davis was treated at Creighton University Medical Center and was released. He then was booked into the Douglas County Youth Center.

Alethea Goynes, 31, Davis' mother, said her son gave her a different account: He tossed the gun as he got out of the car and didn't point it at anyone.

Goynes said police told her they found the gun in some nearby bushes. She said she thinks Davis ran away because he was scared.

"If he admitted to having a gun, then why wouldn't he admit to pointing it at the police," Goynes said. "I believe my son. I think there's more to it."

Andrews has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation.

Police say Davis admitted to possessing the gun. A check of the gun's serial number found that it was reported stolen June 2.

Kleine said Davis is fortunate that he sustained only a leg wound in the incident.

"Obviously, the circumstances are such that with his use of a firearm in the manner that he did, he's fortunate that he's still alive."

Kleine said he considered Davis' age when deciding whether to file charges in district court. "But, again, the juvenile court can only maintain jurisdiction until they're 18." District court, he said, offers much the same services, but can maintain oversight over someone into adulthood.

"Threatening a police officer with that firearm, I believe it should be in an adult court," Kleine said.

Davis is a ninth-grader at North High School. He has been in the Omaha Public Schools since the second grade, an OPS spokeswoman said.

YOU HAVE TO WONDER about the mind-numbing idiocy and breathtakingly willful suspension of disbelief of an alleged "parent" so sure Baby didn't do nothin' when, before he allegedly pulled a gun on a cop, already had been facing charges in juvenile court after being found in a stolen car eight days before he failed to outdraw a cop in the wee, small hours of Tuesday morning.

Naw, Baby didn't do nothin'. What the hell was Baby doing out of the house anyway -- much less out on the streets long after a 14-year-old ought to have been in bed?

I suspect this will be easy enough to sort out. If Baby got shot in the back of the leg, bad news for the cop.

If Baby was shot in the front of the leg, chances are he wheeled on the cop, gun in hand, and it really, really sucks to be him.

BUT HAVING BEEN BORN to a 16-year-old mother of a different last name, one who let him run the streets a week after he already had gotten pinched by The Man -- a mother who will instantly take the word of her feral baby boy despite the fact that he was running from the cops and packing heat. . . .

Well, I guess it has sucked to be Baby for a long, long time.

An inelegant crime-prevention tool

A 9 millimeter handgun will lose a pissing match with an SKS assault rifle every time.

And thus, Omaha finds itself with two fewer common hoodlums on the mean streets -- a duo who picked a fight with a better-armed shopkeeper and ended up dead.

Why? All because they were upset about some gold teefuses they'd ordered from a grillz-and-bling joint.

YOU WANT TO KNOW why newspaper reporters drink? Because they have to -- day in and day out -- write about mind-boggling deviance and stupidity, and they have to do it with the print version of a straight face.

Consider this Omaha World-Herald story today:

The store owner who shot and killed two men Tuesday night won't face charges because he was defending himself after being shot at by one of them, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Friday.

Kleine said Marcel Davis, 16, and Willie Wakefield, 29, were upset about some jewelry that had been ordered from Andre McKesson, owner of Midwest Grillz & Jewelry at 6209 Ames Ave.

Brandon Boyce, a friend of Davis and Wakefield, said he, the two men and a fourth man drove to the store about 10 p.m. Tuesday to pick up a decorative mouthpiece known as a grill.

Boyce said that Davis and Wakefield went inside the store and that McKesson locked the door behind them. Boyce waited outside.

Boyce, 22, said Thursday that he could hear the men inside, arguing.

He recalled hearing, "Why you playing games with us, man? Where's our teeth? Can you give a refund? Then give me my teeth!"

During the argument, Kleine said, Wakefield pulled a 9 mm handgun and fired at least two shots at McKesson.

One of those bullets lodged in the wall above where McKesson had been standing. Two 9 mm cartridge casings were found in the store, Kleine said.

McKesson grabbed an SKS semiautomatic rifle he kept at the counter and fired 10 to 15 rounds at Wakefield and Davis, killing them, Kleine said.

IF YOU ASK ME, this sad story illustrates the rank tragedy of a minority underclass managing to do to itself what the Klan never could have accomplished at its pointy-hooded, malevolent zenith. How do you get to a point of such sociological deviance that you're willing to kill or be killed over ugly-ass gold dental adornments?

What level of familial and societal dysfunction produces such an animal -- one for whom the next logical step after "Where's our teeth? Can you give a refund" is to pull a 9 millimeter and start busting caps?

Thank God for thugs with about as much pistol skillz as brains. And for shopkeepers with better weaponry . . . and better aim.

(Not that honkies like me ought to feel superior for being, on average, marginally less violent . . . at least when it comes to disputes over gold teefuses. Every day, in every way, we're getting there. We're getting there. Hell . . . oftentimes, we ARE there.)

IT SHOULDN'T come to this.

William Wakefield and Marcel Davis Jr. ought to have had better upbringing, better opportunities and a fair shot at life. (No pun intended.) They ought to have been born into a world of order and nurture.

They ought to have lived in a milieu where the classroom held more appeal than the streets.

They ought to have been born into a country where "No child left behind" was more than a slogan. And where, failing that, the criminal-justice system was more than a crook-recycling program.

But they weren't . . . and didn't.

Damned sad, that.

WHAT HAPPENED on Tuesday night was a messy, bloody, horrendous and tragic solution to the problem of a pair of common thugs incapable of working and playing well with others.

Being that it was the only solution at hand -- and given the abject failure of all the others -- I suppose we should be happy with what we can get. That would be two dead crooks instead of one dead shopkeeper.

Happy. . . .

Zippity freakin' doo dah.

Lord have mercy on the dead . . . and on we the living.