By Jennifer Sullivan
The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — The parents of a 12-year-old boy who was shot in the back by a gang member in Skyway more than four years ago are suing the state Department of Corrections, alleging the agency failed to monitor the gunman while he was on community supervision.
Alajawan Brown, the youngest of Louis and Ayanna Brown’s four children, was gunned down in April 2010 after a gang member thought the boy’s jacket resembled a coat a rival gang member was wearing during an earlier shootout a few blocks away.
In March 2012, Curtis Walker was sentenced to 50 years in prison for first-degree murder. Walker, a member of the Blood Pirus gang, apparently thought Alajawan was a member of the rival Crips gang.
Nathan P. Roberts, from Connelly Law Offices in Tacoma, said Department of Corrections (DOC) staff members were well aware of Walker’s violent history and even had a recent tip before the shooting that he was dealing drugs and possessed weapons.
“He was the worst category of offender they supervise, posing a danger to the community. The supervision was horrid,” Roberts said Monday. “I would just say this is one of the most egregious examples of DOC incompetence we’ve seen.”
When Brown was killed, Walker was on DOC supervision for a drug crime and had been classified as a high-risk offender, according to the lawsuit. Walker had previous convictions for assault, drug possession, malicious mischief, reckless endangerment, harassment, obstruction, trespassing and violation of a protection order, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
A DOC spokeswoman declined to discuss the case. The suit was filed Nov. 24.
The Brown family could not be reached for comment. Speaking on their behalf, Roberts said, “The grieving process for them is long.”
Alajawan was returning home after purchasing a pair of football cleats with $20 he’d earned doing yard work for neighbors when he was killed on April 29, 2010, according to testimony during Walker’s criminal trial.
Alajawan was wearing a blue-and-black jacket and jeans — clothing similar to items worn by someone who shot and critically wounded a companion of Walker’s during a gunfight at nearby apartments.
Walker declined to testify at his sentencing. His aunt blamed the media for portraying Walker as a felon and gang member.
In the lawsuit, the Brown family accuses DOC of “failing to exercise reasonable and ordinary care in the performance of its duties.”
They say corrections officials breached their duty by failing to exercise ordinary or even slight care; and said that DOC’s negligence was “the direct and proximate cause” of the boy’s death.