SOUTH BEND — For four days, 18-year-old Delvon Davidson has been on life support at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center, numb from the neck down, barely able to blink his eyes.

A single gunshot shattered Davidson's spine on Tuesday while he was sitting in a gas station parking lot, leaving him unable to breathe or swallow on his own.

Davidson's family decided to take him off life support at 5:21 this evening, they said. It's the same hour that he was born on May 21, 1991.

He has indicated, through slight head nods, that it's time for him to go, his family said.

"He is in so much pain," said Catina Groves, a family friend. "He does not want to live like this."

Groves said more than 200 friends and family have come to say goodbye to Davidson, the second-youngest of eight children.

Davidson was shot while sitting in a car at the corner Western Avenue and Falcon Street Tuesday evening, police said.

His 16-year-old friend, who was in the driver's seat, took Davidson to the hospital while police swarmed the scene for clues.

Police are still searching for the shooter, who they said might have fired from a moving vehicle.

Davidson's family, meanwhile, is left wondering why their little brother was the victim of such violence.

"He did not have one enemy," said Davidson's sister, Yolanda Davidson. "There is not one person I could think of that could say anything bad about him."

Delvon wanted to be in the National Guard, Yolanda said. He attended Washington High School.

"It doesn't make sense," Groves said. "But we believe in God and we have faith. We've just been very prayerful and trying to stay strong."

Staff writer Mary Kate Malone:
mmalone@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6337