Docs Want to Take Rap Shooting Victim Off Life Support: Family

The family's pastor said doctors told them Hiram has no brain activity

The parents of 1-year-old Hiram Lawrence Jr., who was critically  injured in a mass shooting in West Oakland last week, made a public plea Wednesday for hospital officials to wait longer before taking him off life support.

Outside Children's Hospital in Oakland, where  the boy has been receiving treatment since the Nov. 28 shooting, the boys  father, Hiram Lawrence Sr., said, "Whatever it takes for my son -- that's all I ask."

Lawrence Sr., who was accompanied by the boy's mother, Brittany Houston, fought back tears and said, "That's my baby."

Pastor Roosevelt Taylor, of the Tower of Faith Ministry in Oakland, who is the family's pastor, said doctors at Children's Hospital have told the family that there is no activity in Hiram Jr.'s brain and that he is "in paradise."

But Taylor said the family wants to get an opinion from outside  doctors. He said the family has retained Oakland attorney Ivan Golde to try  to stop the hospital from taking the boy off life support before the family gets a second opinion.

Reached by phone, Golde said he doesn't yet have enough medical  evidence to file a lawsuit that would seek an injunction or emergency order  to stop the hospital from taking Hiram Jr. off life support. 

Golde said the family's pediatrician is meeting with doctors at  Children's Hospital to determine if the child is brain dead. If the  pediatrician disagrees with the conclusions of hospital officials, there  might be enough evidence to seek an injunction, he said.

Golde said he wrote a letter to the hospital on Tuesday asking  doctors to take more time. "Otherwise, the family will be outraged," he said.

Children's Hospital spokeswoman Erin Goldsmith said she can't  comment on Hiram Jr.'s condition because his family hasn't authorized the  hospital to release information about him.

Hiram Jr. was among seven people injured when attackers opened  fire on a crowd of people outside a liquor store in the 700 block of Willow  Street shortly after 6 p.m. on Nov. 28. A local rapper had just finished  filming a music video there.

Police are offering a reward of up to $35,000 for information  about the suspects in the case.

Hiram Lawrence Sr., who was with his son when he was shot, said  today that he regrets putting his son in a dangerous situation.

"I was around the wrong people," Lawrence said.

He said, "All I can do is make things better and stay around  positive people."

Police said today that a man considered "person of interest" in  the shooting happened to cross paths with the family of the wounded boy at  the hospital last week, causing a fight.

The man was at the hospital around 9 p.m. on Nov. 30 when he  encountered the family, Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said.

A fight broke out between the family and the man, and Alameda  County sheriff's deputies stationed at the hospital responded, sheriff's Sgt.  J. D. Nelson said.

Deputies realized the man was wanted by Oakland police, and  detained him until police arrived.

Watson said the man was arrested on charges unrelated to the  shooting, and that while he is a person of interest in that case, he has not  been arrested in connection with the shooting.

Bay City News

Contact Us