PALO VERDE SHOOTING: 'I never thought this could happen here' - News

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Feb. 18, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

PALO VERDE SHOOTING: 'I never thought this could happen here'

15-year-old victim's mother speaks out

By PAUL HARASIM
© 2008, REVIEW-JOURNAL

School Shootings

Barbara Privett holds a portrait of her son Christopher on Sunday at her home. The 15-year-old was killed while walking home Friday from Palo Verde High School.
Photo by Ralph Fountain

Christopher Privett
Birthplace: Idaho Falls, Idaho, 1993
School: Palo Verde High School freshman, attended Fertitta Middle School
Favorite subject: English
Freshman football team center
Favorite sports team: Pittsburgh Steelers

Barbara Privett recalled what she and her husband were told before they bought their home in Summerlin seven years ago: It's the ideal neighborhood in which to raise a family. The schools were new, there were beautiful recreation facilities and, most important of all, it was safe.

On Sunday, an exhausted Privett was trying to decide when to hold a funeral for her 15-year-old son, Christopher, an honor student felled two days earlier in a drive-by shooting near Palo Verde High School.

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Red-eyed from both crying and a lack of sleep, she stared at her son's picture on the kitchen table and spoke in a monotone.

"I never thought this could happen here," she said. "He was just walking home from school with his friends in a nice neighborhood. This is such a pretty place."

Las Vegas police arrested a 16-year-old Palo Verde sophomore early Saturday in connection

with the slaying on Alta Drive.

Sources familiar with the investigation said the suspect was Gerald Davidson, though they were not certain of the spelling of his name. Police have not given a motive for the violence that occurred shortly before 2 p.m.

The triggerman was traveling in a car with four other people at the time of the shooting: two female students at Palo Verde and two young men who never attended the school. None of the four others had been arrested as of Saturday. Deputy Chief Ted Moody said no further information on the case was available Sunday.

The suspect was booked into the Clark County juvenile detention center on one count of murder with a deadly weapon; three counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon; and four counts of firing a weapon from a moving vehicle.

Privett said she believes she no longer can allow her 16-year-old son, Alex, to walk home from school.

"We only live about a block and a half from school but I can't take the chance of him getting killed, too," she said. "I'm going to take my lunch hour when it's time for him to leave school and drive him home. I can't lose two sons."

One of the three teenagers walking with Christopher along Alta, just east of Pavilion Center Drive, said Sunday that no words were exchanged before the shooting that killed his friend.

"The shot that killed Chris went through another friend's backpack and right into Chris' heart," the teen said. "The last thing he said was, 'I've been hit,' and then he started to fall. I caught him before he fell and laid him down."

One thing Privett wants made clear is that her son was not part of any gang. Police had no early indications that anyone involved in the shooting had gang ties.

"Christopher was no trouble," Privett said. "He always got good grades and was a happy kid. He had friends over after school all the time."

Separated from her husband, Privett, an office manager for a law firm, moved into an apartment near Palo Verde after her Summerlin home was sold. In addition to Alex, she has two grown children.

"I moved to this apartment because I didn't want my sons to have to go far to school," she said. "I was sure this would be safe."

Though Privett said her son hadn't speculated about what he wanted to do as an adult, the friend who was with Christopher when he was shot said he talked about becoming a firefighter.

"He also liked to listen to Snoop Dogg," he said.

"My son really enjoyed school," Privett said of her son, who preferred others to call him Chris, rather than Christopher.

"To me he was always Christopher and he'd always say, 'Oh, mom,'" Privett said, tears welling in her eyes as she smiled. "He knew he'd always be my Christopher."

A 5-foot, 7-inch, 150-pound center on Palo Verde's freshman football team, Christopher was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

His mother hailed from Pennsylvania and her parents still live there.

"See how he loved the Steelers," Privett said, pointing to his bedroom with a yellow-and-black Steelers bedspread and players' photographs on the wall, including quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and former linebacker Jack Lambert. A Steelers souvenir helmet sat on the bed.

For his mother's recent 50th birthday, Christopher had wanted to get her a Steelers license plate frame for her car.

"He couldn't find one so he got me a Pittsburgh Pirates one instead," his mother said.

As she stood in her son's room, she noticed he had left some homework for health class in his night stand.

"He was something," she said, looking at the paper. "He didn't have to work hard to get A's and B's."

Alex Privett found it almost impossible to talk about his brother, a year and two days younger than him.

"We played with toys and video games when we were young, and sports when we were older," he said.

Christopher was born in Idaho Falls and moved to Las Vegas with his family in the second grade. He enjoyed reading literature and writing themes as he grew older, his mother said. He played the bass clarinet for two years in middle school.

"It wasn't something he practiced a lot so he gave it up," his mother said, half smiling. "English was his favorite subject. He didn't like math that much."

Pacing between her son's room and the dining room, she said she can't believe young people won't give up on violence and guns.

"The police told me that maybe the shots were fired just to scare somebody," she said. "But don't they understand there can be consequences? The way things are now it doesn't matter where you live. Violence can happen anywhere."

She had initially been told by school authorities that her son was taken to University Medical Center. After she arrived there, however, she learned her son was taken to Summerlin Hospital. By Sunday afternoon, she still hadn't seen her son's body.

"They said they had to do an autopsy Saturday," she said. "Maybe that's why I still find it so hard to believe this happened. Maybe after I see his body it will really hit me."

Relatives from Pennsylvania have been arriving all weekend to try to comfort Privett.

"I'm 80," said Stewart Opel, Christopher's grandfather. "I wish I had been taken instead."

What Barbara Privett wants, she knows she can never have again.

"I want to see him with that big smile on his face as he waves to me on his way to school."

Review-Journal writer Antonio Planas contributed to this report. Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2908.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Report abuse April wrote on June 24, 2009 04:16 PM: I think this should be tried as a race hate crime. In my opinion he was shot because he was white. Report abuse HARLEY wrote on April 12, 2009 10:04 PM: i remember playing basketball with him and his friends at the willows parkk.... =[ R.I.P. CHRIS..=[ Report abuse anne wrote on December 15, 2008 01:37 PM: I thought summerlin was a nice place also. But things are changing around here now. Economy is getting bad, and people now of days just have the guts to do things like this. My stepdad just got attack, from going to check on our other house. Supposely the guys were staying there for like a week or so. They put a gun to his head, im just thankful that he's alive. But I do agree with the others, it doesnt matter by ethinicity. Report abuse J. Nelson (student of sig rogich ms) wrote on September 24, 2008 11:37 PM: White, black? What are you people talking about? All I see is a person has been killed because of another persons recklessness... All just in one little slip a whole life is gone just like blowing out a candle... The people who loved him so distaught. I can only imagine and wish that I could save everyone one, but that's not possible and life stops, grieves, then goes on. We can only learn from this now and try to treat lives with more respect. Report abuse Johnathan Harris wrote on July 21, 2008 04:39 AM: hey my name is john. and i used to go to rogich and will now be a freshman at palo verde high school. i just wanted to wich the best for the privet family becaus i cant even imagine wat they feel inside Report abuse Val wrote on March 09, 2008 12:02 AM: Its funny how most of you are outraged because the shooter was BLACK and was in YOUR neighborhood. Are you kidding? This has nothing to do with race or neighborhoods(for the record, when you mail something to "Summerlin" you still write LAS VEGAS, NV)! This had to do with a TEENAGER killing another TEENAGER. Whats funny is that nobody ever talks about how the news originally stated Chris was throwing up gang signs(Im not saying its true, just saying it was overlooked). But, thats not possible right? Theres no way a WHITE kid could be involved in any way with a gasp GANG! Everyone wants these little BLACK kids to go to prison and rot, but remember those little -rich white kids- who called themselves the "311 Boyz" (which is a GANG name, mind you. See the article here http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Oct-19-Sun-2003/news/22402663.html if you have 'forgotten') who got off with PROBATION when they smashed that poor boy, Stephen Hansen's, face in! Not to mention all of the other heinous crimes they were involved in. I agree, the kid who shot Chris should go to Prison for Murder, Im not denying that in any way. What I am saying is that, WHITE kids get away with much more than any Black kid ever could(but you wont admit that, will you?). If we are going to get ahead in society and actually REDUCE the crime rate, we need to let ALL kids(and races) know that, if they commit a crime, they WILL do the time!! Just remember this, with money doesnt always come common sense or good parenting techniques! Teach your kids right and wrong, thats what it comes down to, RIGHT AND WRONG, not BLACK AND WHITE! P.S Im white. Report abuse Medium wrote on March 05, 2008 04:29 PM: It amazes me how people are actually fighting and bickering on this poor boy's page. This page is not meant for ignorant people to waste away their days commenting back and forth about Summerlin and racism. You people sound like your in your teens and this is some kind of myspace page. As a teen, who recently graduated from Palo, and lives in Summerlin-- I heard about everything and drive past Chris's "site" everyday. Chris's family: your in our prayers and Im so sorry for your loss. Summerlin is an amazing place and regardless of what anyone says, this incident should NOT have happened here. Yes, there is violence everywhere.. but many of us live in this community because it is safe. Im sorry this happened to you ina place that you had so much trust in. Palo is a wonderful school-- the best in Vegas and you couldnt have chose a better location to raise your kids. Again, Im sorry that you are going through this. Sue- I agree with what you are saying and have read many of the arguments on this page. You sound like a very bright woman who is just trying to voice your opinion and stand up for Summerlin and our teens and neighboors here. We thank you. :)Regardless of what anyone says-- Summerlin is different. Its like the paradise of Las Vegas. But, arguing with ignorant people on this page won't do any good-- they would simply have to live here to know why were so passionate about it. :) Report abuse moshe wrote on March 02, 2008 02:59 PM: the blacks and hispanics are preying on the white males at alarming rates in our society...law enforcement is not safe let alone the rest of us....very soon the white male will rise up and say to hell with the legal system, shyster lawyers, corrupt and weak kneed judges...it may come to vigilante justice but payback time is around the corner and will last until the murdering, raping, intimidating stops cold for good...we have had enough. Report abuse Mark Curran wrote on March 01, 2008 02:22 PM: This violence wont stop unless the whole gang mentality is rejected by the youth themselves -- when it quits being "cool" or attactive to be macho or ganged up. Most males at that age do everything to impress others -- particularly women. So fair or not, when women quit rewarding this kind of nonsense, we will see a lot less of it. Report abuse Jonathan wrote on February 28, 2008 07:04 AM: Making a Stand wrote on February 27, 2008 08:25 PM: The disgusting and irresponsible The only things disgusting and irresponsible are the criminal blacks preying on society. They not only get away with murderous crimes, but are being enabled and supported by hate groups such as Al Sharpton's mob of thugs and the vicious NAACP. Why do these black racist groups continue to exist, when they are nothing but institutions of hatred. Read All Comments