Drive-By

On July 9, 1990, three teenagers killed a 13-year-old boy and wounded two others in a drive-by shooting in Oakland, California. The shooter, Tony (Fat 'Tone) Davis, was accompanied by John (Junebug) Jones III and Aaron Estill. The shooting was the aftermath of an incident the day before, when a bicycle Junebug had borrowed was stolen and he was set upon by a gang of younger boys, one carrying a length of pipe; the shooting victim, however, had not been in that gang. Here Rivlin (Fire on the Prairie) presents a full picture of the families of the three killers, all now in prison for various terms, and the Oakland ghetto during the 1980s and early '90s. All three teens came from broken families, were involved in drug trafficking and hoped for better lives. But the economy of the city was a shambles, their schools were inadequate and, in the absence of parental guidance, the force of peer pressure was insurmountable. Unlike many youthful murderers, the three were remorseful. Rivlin gives human faces to juvenile offenders who are often portrayed as stereotypes. (Sept.)