Former Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's great-grandson charged with aggravated murder

WEWS (ABC Cleveland) is reporting that former Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's great-grandson Donald Jackson-Gates has been charged with fatally shooting a man last month.

From the article:

Last week, Jackson-Gates was arrested on an aggravated murder charge for the shooting death of Chris’Shon Coleman on May 14.

Authorities say Jackson-Gates allegedly shot and killed Coleman on East 40th Street, at a location just blocks away from where the former mayor and multiple Jackson family members live.

What court records have revealed is that Coleman is the nephew of Robert Shepard, who is the man accused of luring Jackson-Gates’ uncle Frank Q. Jackson to where he was shot and killed in September 2021 when he went to a home to pick up a dirt bike.

Jackson-Gates was indicted on the following charges:

One count of aggravated murder.

Two counts of murder.

Two counts of felonious assault.

One count of having a weapon under disabilities.

Ohio gun owners are very familiar with Frank Jackson, even if they are blessed to live outside of Cuyahoga County.

Throughout his years as mayor, Jackson sought to punish law-abiding gun owners for the violence in his crime-plagued city again and again and again.

His latest effort came via a 2021 letter to President Joe Biden, signed by 27 other mayors, asking for help to reduce gun violence.

As crime rose in Cleveland during the pandemic, Jackson often cited the ease with which guns can be obtained as a major factor in crime in Cleveland and other cities.

But if Jackson really wanted to do something about crime, he would start literally with his own house:

• Man who posed for photo with gun in Mayor Frank Jackson’s driveway named in gang case involving mayor’s great-grandson
• Mayor Frank Jackson has a crime problem — at home
• Anomalies add up in deadly shooting investigation involving Mayor Frank Jackson’s grandson
• Appearance of conflict-of-interest at issue in criminal cases involving Mayor Frank Jackson’s grandson, experts say

In a statement released following the arrest of his grandson in 2017, Mayor Jackson said "Frank is my grandson and as any parent or grandparent who has raised children in a challenging environment knows, there is a constant worry about their wellbeing."

Jackson's repeated efforts to violate the Second Amendment rights of residents of this "challenging environment" have been found by courts to be unconstitutional (see here and here).

In early 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to take up the City of Cleveland's appeal of an Eighth District Court of Appeals decision which declared that a Cleveland gun offender registry and several gun regulations first proposed by Mayor Frank Jackson in 2014, and passed by city council in 2015 are unconstitutional. A lower court had already struck down other parts of the law in 2016.

Never-the-less, Cleveland's new mayor Justin Bibb recently announced he was helping create a task force with other anti-Second Amendment mayors seeking fnid wys to thwart Ohio's preemption law in their Ohio cities.

From WVIZ (NPR Cleveland):

Ohio Democratic mayors and big city police leaders on Monday decried recent Republican-backed state gun laws, saying they plan to form their own task force to thwart shootings in their cities.

...

Speaking on Monday’s call were Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval, Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan, Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. and Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. Police brass from Cleveland, Akron and Columbus also spoke.

...

Mayors have long said their hands were tied by a 2006 state law preempting local gun restrictions. Now Columbus is considering a new approach using a public health nuisance law as a workaround.

Bibb spoke favorably of Columbus’ efforts, saying the new task force would explore that avenue. He said he had instructed his own law director to find “creative legal strategies and tactics to crack down on the prevalence of illegal guns, and guns in general” in Cleveland.

The mayor reiterated his plans to spend federal stimulus money on neighborhood violence interruption programs. The city is also using a state grant to expand its surveillance capabilities.

“We are actively looking at ways in Cleveland to really stop crime before it starts,” Bibb said. “And we are taking a public health perspective to address the leading causes of gun violence that plague our city day in and day out.”

Bibb is referring to a scheme being hatched by these cities, in which they are conspiring to regulate guns through local boards of health.

Buckeye Firearms Association has fought these cities' efforts for many years. We have repeatedly exposed the fact that the local gun control policies they support are rarely used to prosecute crimes because, as municipal statutes, they can only be enforced as misdemeanors, whereas when crimes are committed involving firearms, state laws have been violated that carry felony penalties are involved. Given the choice, prosecutors will naturally chose to pursue charges on the higher penalty.

Chad D. Baus served as Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary from 2013-2019, and continues to serve on the Board of Directors. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.