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Anti-gun violence advocate, state representative, says fight more personal after grandson is killed

2 days 12 hours 57 minutes ago Tuesday, January 28 2025 Jan 28, 2025 January 28, 2025 1:39 PM January 28, 2025 in News
Source: WBRZ
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BATON ROUGE — Anti-gun violence advocate and State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle said her fight has become more personal since her grandson was shot and killed outside a Baton Rouge restaurant Jan. 20.

"I just never thought it'd land on my step," Marcelle told WBRZ Tuesday.

D'Shawn Brown, 22, was shot and killed in the parking lot of McDonald's at the corner of Airline Highway and Prescott Road. The shooting is still under investigation.

Marcelle said her grandson had left her house while waiting for a family member to come put antifreeze in his car ahead of last week's cold weather. By the time the family member arrived with the antifreeze, Marcelle said Brown was gone.

She then began going about her day, running errands to prepare for the impending snowfall.

"(I thought) he's probably sitting at my house waiting for us to get back," Marcelle said. "And he never came back."

The state representative said that she had heard about the McDonald's shooting but did not think it could have been Brown who was killed.

Later, her daughter and Brown's mother told her that she saw videos of a grey Honda that looked like the car Brown was driving at the scene. Eventually, authorities told Marcelle that Brown had been killed.

"I've been in kind of a shock ever since it happened," Marcelle told WBRZ.

Adding to the shock, it was Brown's brother's fifth birthday.

Marcelle said that the first part of making sure tragedies like the one that affected her family do not happen is getting guns off the street. She said she has been involved with local politicians and law enforcement in gun buyback programs to help facilitate this.

"I think that was somewhat effective," Marcelle said. "Anything we can do to decrease the violence in this city, we need to do."

Parents also must be held accountable for the gun violence epidemic, Marcelle added.

"So many young people have access to guns and the parents and grandparents don't even know the guns are in their homes," she said. "And in the instances where they do, they need to do better."

Legislation to make it harder to get guns and easier to hold gun owners responsible is also something Marcelle is advocating for, especially in the wake of her grandson's death. She said that this will be a priority in the next session, adding that she also wants to make it harder to obtain ammunition.

"What the young people feel in Baton Rouge is that they have to have a gun," Marcelle said. "They feel like somebody's going to try to shoot them and they have to protect themselves. It's just a really sad situation we're in."

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