After son's death, a mother issues warnings to those who look like him

Nov. 10, 2013, 10:28 a.m.

If Jessie Guidry-Acquah sees a man on the street who reminds her of her son, she issues a warning.

She tells the man about her own son, gunned down in Compton at the age of 23.

On that May morning, David Davon Matthewis woke up, ate some chicken and cereal for breakfast, played a quick video game, then showed off his bike – a black beach cruiser – to his mother.

“I said ‘That’s nice, baby. That’s a beautiful bike,’ ” she recalled.

Matthewis left his video game on because he said he’d be right back.

Just after 11 a.m., Matthewis was walking home in the 1000 block of East Elm Street in Compton when a vehicle pulled up and someone inside shot at him, said Sgt. Robert Gray with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau.

Gray said he thinks the people involved are gang members and may have mistaken Matthewis for a member of a rival gang. He said he has two suspects in mind but needs more evidence before the Los Angeles County district attorney's office will file charges.

Hours after the shooting, Guidry-Acquah found herself at St. Francis Medical Center, in front of a physician who bowed his head low before delivering the news: The bullet had hit her son’s spine and a main artery before exiting through his lower abdomen. The doctor said there was nothing more they could do.

“I hope his life wasn’t taken because of mistaken identity, someone thinking he was from a set of gangs and he wasn’t,” she said.

In recent years, her son had shown an increasing interest in making music, said Guidry-Acquah. He bought a guitar and a microphone and would spend hours in a storage room writing songs. After he died, his relatives discovered more than 100 songs Matthewis had recorded.

“I didn’t even know the boy had did that much,” Guidry-Acquah said.

Recently, Guidry-Acquah saw a man who looked like her son at a Blue Line station.

She approached him and his friends, who were playing a dice game.

The boys were quiet at they listened to her story.

She told them to dress differently, to be careful of their colors. She said there are evil people in the world, shooting others for no reason.

Anyone with information about the killing can call the Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

-- Nicole Santa Cruz

Photo: David Davon Matthewis. Credit: Jessie Guidry-Acquah

12 reader comments

So sorry to see that another young brotha is lost to stupid gang violence. My heartfelt condolences to his family.

A question that I have is about this article. The headline reads, "After son's death, a mother issues warnings to those who look like him." I read the article all the to the end. When the mother approached the man that looked like her son (and his friends) at the blue line train station, she advised him and his friends to "dress differently, to be careful of their colors."

So my question is this: What was her son wearing when he was killed? Was it all blue or all red? Was it merely sagging pants? What were the men at the blue line station wearing that compelled this grieving mother to warn these young men about their appearance?

The writer of this article, Nicole Santa Cruz, really missed an opportunity to educate their readers and she especially missed the mark of good journalism by writing this article about a victim's death being affected by his dress but not addressing specifically what the "dress code" it talked about in the article actually was.

— Glen M Nov. 30, 2013 at 4:53 a.m.

My deepest condolence to the mother and those effected with this lost. As a resident of Compton, this year I have not felt as safe as other years. I have heard a couple of gun shots, have seen more folks digging in my trash cans in the middle of the night, and a lot of graffiti in the walls and on the sidewalk. How about a gang injunction and a zero tolerance in downtown Compton? How about enforcing the small crime that happens but it does not seems it is a big priority that somethings leads to a bigger problem/crime? Lets make Compton a more beautiful and safer city. We do not need to loose any more young folks or anyone to gang violence. Compton residents are we up to the challenge to be more a part of the solution than the problem? How many of us voted in the last school elections? How many of us have gone to at least one city council meeting? How many report any suspicious activity to the Sheriff? How many of us talk to our neighbors or are a good neighbor by respecting others? It is up to us to make Compton the city we all want and the city it once was and it will become. Take pride in Compton and get involved in making this a better Compton. You wear a Compton hat or sweater but you throw trash in the street or maybe you are the one that commit graffiti. Really? You really represent Compton. Anyways, just sad and heartbreaking to read about a mother loosing its child.

— ComptonSafer Nov. 10, 2013 at 3:33 p.m.

The Homicide Report

After son's death, a mother issues warnings to those who look like him

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