Aunt takes stand at NC rapper’s trial about drive-by shooting that killed 9-year-old

Danyell Ragland idled at a red light in the Ford Explorer. Music was playing, and her three children and niece and nephew were talking and excited about going to Pelican’s Snoballs on a hot August evening.

In the seconds after the light turned green around 8:38 p.m. Aug. 18, 2019, Ragland and the children’s lives would forever be changed by three men in a maroon Honda Accord, who prosecutors contend stalked the SUV down Lean Street and opened fire.

Ragland was the second witness to testify Tuesday in the federal trial of Antonio “Lil Tony” Davenport, who is charged with mistakenly killing 9-year-old Z’Yon Person to advance his place in the Eight Trey Gangster Crips, a violent Durham street gang known to frequent Durham’s Braggtown neighborhood.

Davenport is on trial for three murder, weapon and racketeering charges in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro. If found guilty of all three charges, he could face two life sentences plus 10 years or more.

Prosecutors have argued that Davenport, along with two fellow Eight Trey Gangster Crips, went out that night looking for rival gang members who had attacked him at a Durham mall four days before, taking his chain.

Prosecutors say the people who attacked Davenport were part of the rival O’Block gang, which took a video of the assault and shared it on social media, shaming Davenport and his gang.

Prosecutors contend that Davenport, who drove, Dival Nygee Magwood, who was in the front seat, and Derrick Lamont Dixon, who was in the back seat, all had guns.

When the light that Ragland was waiting for turned green, Davenport honked the horn, then drove around Ragland’s Ford Explorer at the intersection of North Duke and Leon streets, prosecutors argued in the courtroom and court documents.

Then Davenport, who had a 9 mm gun, and Dixon, who had a .40-caliber gun, opened fire on Ragland’s light green SUV, which they thought contained the rival gang members.

Five bullets hit the SUV, and two went in the passenger side back-seat window. One bullet pierced Ragland’s then 8-year-old son’s arm. Another went straight through Z’Yon Person’s forehead. He died the next morning.

Davenport’s attorneys tell a very different story.

They have argued that Davenport was only an associate member of the gang, which recruited him because he was a rapper on the rise. Davenport was a member of rap trio 83 Babies, which was touring the country and had signed a record contract in the months before Z’Yon’s killing.

Davenport’s attorneys argue the rapper didn’t know anything about Dixon’s and Magwood’s plan to start shooting at the SUV. Davenport didn’t shoot a gun, they argued, but Dixon shot two guns that left behind a trail of more than 20 shell casings. Another bullet went into a woman’s apartment window and ricocheted off her apartment, and another hit a car.

After the shooting, Davenport was upset because people in the community knew his car, and he was wearing an ankle bracelet tracking his movements, one of his attorneys said during opening statements.

Moments before the shooting

Just before the shooting, Ragland, her children and niece and nephew had eaten a dinner of fried chicken, Z’Yon’s favorite, Ragland said.

Ragland and the five children had picked up Dominique Chappell and her children, so Chappell could borrow Ragland’s other car.

The two families had hung out in the parking lot of her apartment on Buchanon Boulevard, talking for about 20 minutes, before loading up the vehicles, with Chappell heading home and Ragland heading to Pelican’s Snoballs.

Both families ended up at red light in the eastbound lanes on Leon Street at the North Duke Street intersection around 8:38 p.m. Ragland was in the left turn lane, and Chappell and her family were turning right.

Z’Yon and Chappell’s son were hanging out the windows talking to each other.

“I told them to sit their butts down,” said Chappell, who was the first person to testify at the trial.

Chappell turned right when the light turned green.

Ragland heard a honk and then some gunfire.

“They are shooting over here, guys,” she told the kids in the car.

Ragland pulled up a little, but couldn’t turn because other vehicles were coming, she said. Then the shots started again as a car pulled up beside Ragland and then traveled on down Leon.

Ragland said when she looked up she saw a maroon Honda Accord. On cross examination, she also said she saw someone holding two guns out of a partially rolled-down back-seat window.

Trip to the hospital

After the car drove by, Ragland’s son said he’d been shot.

“I got myself together because I was scared,” she said. “Then I called 911.”

Ragland drove to Duke Regional Hospital, a few miles away on North Duke Street. They pulled up to the emergency room and started shouting for help.

Duke doctors testified that Z’Yon likely knew he wouldn’t survive, but they worked to keep him alive so his family could say goodbye.

He was pronounced dead hours later.

Ragland testified slowly, her words slowed by emotions and tears.

Davenport also wiped away tears during Ragland’s and others’ testimony, including when jurors were shown a photo of Z’Yon lying motionless and bloody in a hospital bed.

When Ragland brought Z’Yon to the hospital, he was unconscious, she said.

“Did you ever see Z’Yon again?” the prosecutor asked.

“I did not,” she said.

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