By james art 
The Baton Rouge Violent Victorrion against Weapons and State Representative K. Denise Marcel said her fight had become more personal as her grandson was shot and killed in front of Baton Rouge restaurant on January 20.
“I just never thought it would land in my step,” Marcel told WBRZ Tuesday.
The 22 -year -old D’Son Brown was shot dead and killed in the McDonald’s parking lot in the corner of the airline’s highway and Psot Road. The shooting is still being investigated.
Marcel said her grandson had left his house while waiting for a family member to come to put antifreeze in his car before the cold weather from last week. By the time the family member arrived with antifreeze, Marcel said Brown was gone.
Then she started going around her day, executing orders to prepare for the upcoming snowfall.
“(I thought), he probably sits in my house and waits for us to come back,” Marcel said. “And he never came back.”
The state representative said she had heard of McDonald’s shooting, but did not think Brown could be killed.
Later, her daughter and Brown’s mother told her that she was seeing videos of gray Honda, which looked like a car that Brown was driving at the scene. In the end, authorities told Marcel that Brown had been killed.
“I’ve been in some shock since it happened,” Marcel told WBRZ.
Adding to the shock, it was Brown’s fifth birthday.
Marcel said that the first part of making sure that tragedies like the one that has influenced her family is not happening is to remove weapons from the street. She said she had participated in local politicians and law enforcement programs to redeem weapons to help facilitate this.
“I think it was a little effective,” Marcel said. “Everything we can do to reduce violence in this city we have to do.”
Parents should also be responsible for the epidemic of arms violence, Marcel added.
“So many young people have access to weapons, and parents and grandparents don’t even know that weapons are in their homes,” she said. “And in cases where they do, they have to do better.”
The legislation, to make it difficult to obtain weapons and easily hold responsible weapons owners, is also something that Marcel overlaps, especially after the death of his grandson. She said it would be a priority in the next session, adding that she also wanted to make it difficult to acquire ammunition.
“What young people feel in Baton Rouge is that they have to have a gun,” Marcel said. “They have the feeling that someone will try to shoot them and have to protect themselves. It’s just a really sad situation we are.”