SOUTH BEND -- Hours before he was to be taken off life support Saturday, 18-year-old Delvon Davidson told his family he wasn’t ready to go.

“The doctor asked him, ‘Do you still want to go through with this?’ and Delvon shook his head no,” said Davidson’s mother, Patricia Miller.

Davidson was shot in the head Tuesday while sitting in a gas station parking lot, paralyzing him from the neck down.

Doctors say he will never walk, talk, eat or breathe on his own.

His family had planned to take Davidson off life support Saturday evening, following his wishes.

But that morning, family said Davidson changed his mind, mouthing the words, “I want to live.”

“You couldn’t hear it but you could read his lips,” said Catina Groves, a family friend.

“I think he’s trying to hold on for the family, but the family doesn’t want him to suffer anymore,” Miller said. “He’s a fighter.”

Since Davidson is 18, doctors cannot take him off life support without his consent, Miller said.

Though paralyzed, he is mentally aware – crying at the sight of his grandmother and trying, often in vain, to communicate, Groves said.

But his condition has not improved. Sunday night, he had a temperature of 106 degrees, his family said.

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

As of Sunday night, it was unknown if there had been any arrests in the shooting.

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