OK. Hello. Good afternoon, everyone.
This is Tiffany Smith,
the mother of Cameron Jackson,
and she will be making a statement today.
We ask that you honor,
respect that she will not be taking
any questions at this time. Tiffany.
Hello, um. I I wanted to 1st just kind
of create like. Whole camera was.
Never in a million years would I
have ever thought that I would
be burying my son. And. Uhm.
With all of the the media and everything,
it's it's been really hard.
I know someone asked like,
where is his dad? His dad?
It's just unable to even be here
because of the heartbreak that
he's dealing with right now.
Just to kind of share with you
like who Cameron was Cameron?
Loved his family.
I homeschool Cameron so that I can
make sure that Cameron was, you know,
the best student that he could be
and I have his coach here with me.
Cameron has been boxing since he was nine.
And we would take him to
boxing like every day.
Cameron box practice six days a week.
That's how driven he was with boxing.
Umm.
He loved animals and.
I'm from Atlanta. I've been
here all my life and you know,
you see all of this, the violence on TV,
but you never think that one day you would
be waking up and it would be your child.
And I've heard, I've I've just been sitting
back listening to all of the the news.
Reports and everything and I
wanted to to speak because.
This is not about Cameron.
This is not about that other little kid.
This is about all of our children.
And I I really want to,
you know, I have a plan.
I have a solution for what's
going on with our children.
I'm not ready to reveal it right now. But um.
What I'm really committed to is that.
Our children have a safe place.
And, you know, listening to the other mother.
Speak about not having the resources.
You know, in my situation can't
we had all the resources.
But the one thing that we
were unable to deal with.
Was the community the environment, the city?
And.
That right there.
It's something that I'm committed
to transforming in Atlanta.
And so I wanted to bring his coach
to really share a little bit about
Cameron's drive and who he was.
How was your day?
My name is Zahir Raheem. I'm from
Philadelphia, PA my name is Zahir
ZAHIR. My last name is Rahim RAH EE M.
I'm Cameron's coach.
We called him little Fuji.
He was very disciplined.
He had a very, very hard drive man.
He was very gentle.
I've never heard him say a curse word.
He's very respectful, loving.
I've had adults come into my gym and
have emotional problems or or issues,
and I watch Cameron go to him
and offer assistance to him.
We had dreams and goals of going
to the Olympics 2024 in Paris.
I won in 96 here in Atlanta and he
reminded me of me when I was younger.
And I've seen a lot of
them being him fighting.
It's like they took my dream.
I went professional.
And he was the one that I knew that I
could buy, curiously lived through again,
and really make it.
We talked about his dreams, his goals,
his passions and the things he loved.
He loved animals. He loved to cook.
He loved projects.
And he was always happy.
He was always the happiest kid.
And I know that as a collective,
we as adults need to find a solution
to unnecessary gun violence,
because these kids don't
get these guns themselves.
They're not.
They're not getting them themselves.
And as adults,
I think we got to come together
collectively to find a solution to stop it.
Forever, forever.
When it is when I was a child out
of Philadelphia in the inner cities
and that's what made me leave
home when I was a young child.
That's what brought me here.
I left home at 13 because I witnessed
someone died in front of my face
and I couldn't take it anymore.
They want to live it no more.
So this is just a flashback for me.
And I wish and pray that everybody
could find peace in the situation
and we could change the lives
of these children forever,
because this is our future we're talking
about and this is really unnecessary.
Thank you.
And so.
And so really like.
I don't know. Where we go from here
like camera was my whole world.
Um, and so now I gotta figure out
what's next. That was my baby boy.
Um.
But what I do know is I'm not gonna
allow his. Death to be in vain.
And what I do know is I don't want
another mother to have to stand.
And go through this process.
And so, yeah, um.
Grabbing this one.
My name is Robin Bryant.
I'm a dear friend. To Tiffany.
And we are both mothers.
And I need or would like for
everyone to understand. What?
That word is Mother's mom.
That's what we all are.
We're losing our children.
And it's time to take action.
And we're ready.
We thank everyone for their thoughts,
prayers, condolences.
They help us get through the day.
But at the end of that day.
We also need action.
And I thank you spell, Robin, Robin, Brian
BRYNT.
Honestly, it's secure. Did you want?
OK. Can I say something?
I know you don't want to take any
questions and we certainly respect
that. I just want to be totally
transparent to that in our stories.
Police are saying that Cameron may
have been the target that night.
He may have had some gang affiliation.
I know from talking to some family
member that you all say he doesn't.
Can you just speak to that so?
Have your say.
Wouldn't have to report that part.
Right. Well, we don't have
any of that information and
we're working with the police.
Tiffany is in contact with
some of the investigators.
It's an ongoing investigation.
So we'll wait and let the
facts speak for themselves.
But right now there is only speculation
about things like that they've shared.
You know what what it is about their family,
so anything else that people are saying.
They just.
They're not facts and we'll let the
facts speak for themselves and we
ask that if anyone does have factual
information about this incident,
they come forward,
they give names and they give information
so we can get justice for Cameron and
the other children affected by this,
this situation.
Yes. Aspen. Call ASTEN Hall HALL.
It's going. Is a CC AM ERON
Cameron and please spell Tiffany.
Tiffany.
May I say something about
target? I want to make it clear. That
no child is exempt. Today.
Yesterday. It may be camera all
of your children are targeted.
It's gun violence. Yeah,
well we do know right now what you
all know is that Cameron is a victim
of this gun violence. He's a victim.
He's a 15 year old child who was
murdered on the streets in Atlanta.
That is facts that we all know.
And again, we just want to know.
Those who did it and that they're
held responsible for their actions.
And again, as Tiffany said,
that this doesn't happen to any other family.
So those are the facts that we know.
And just
one last thing, someone sent me a
picture of what looked like him holding
up some gang signs and he was smoking.
And I just, I have to be transparent
because I have the duty to,
I have to put it in the story
and I want to give you all.
I don't want later, you just say, well,
she didn't tell us and she stood right there.
And I know you're not you don't
wanna take questions, but I just
feel like you have to know what we.
Story. You wanna give you a?
Well, we do.
Well, I want to say that.
Cameron Cameron Jackson.
He was a great kid.
He came to the gym everyday.
I've never witnessed anything about
those kind of affiliations or those
kind of actions at all with him.
I don't know if they want to say
whatever they want to spend their story.
I've never seen that, never witnessed it.
Cameron was a great kid.
He came to, he did well in school,
he came to the
gym every day and he was very driven.
Recognize any of the kids in that?
Well, again, we're not taking any questions.
Anything on an ongoing investigation
will be addressed with the police
if the family knows anything.
And again, you know, Cameron's 15
year old gun violence victim and we
like justice for this family and they
would like to make sure that nothing
like this happens to any other family.
And that's what we know who's 15 years old.
His birthday was November the 6th.
He just turned 15. He had a wonderful
birthday celebration with his loved ones.
His mom just wanted to share how loved
he was by by her, by her husband.
His dad, Jerry, his,
his aunt and all the rest of their family,
his uncle and his siblings, his sisters here.
So we just act as, you know, be respectful,
the family, everyone and understand,
you know what they're going through,
respect their privacy.
She gave a statement.
And that's that's really all we have to say.
Tiffany.
It doesn't matter and.
And the reason why I say it doesn't
matter is because what does matter is
that we have children that are dying.
And. No matter what the name is,
no matter what pictures you're talking about,
it doesn't matter.
We got children that are dying.
We're losing our future.
And anyone of you could have
been walking with your husbands,
with your wives at Atlantic Station.
And you could have caught a
bullet in the back of your head.
And so I get all of that.
I get, I get where your jobs,
I get where you're coming from.
But as a community,
if we don't come together.
And get the conversation straight
about the real issue that's going on.
We're gonna lose a generation.
This is not just about Cameron.
I'm a millennial.
Most of these children
are millennial children.
We're the largest generation right now and
so we all got to think about our future.
It's it's it's going downhill.
With social media and
everything that's going on,
if we don't keep it straight to the problem.
What? My name is his.
That doesn't matter.
And I get that it's important,
but what matters is we
have children out here.
They are carrying guns.
We have children out here that are
shoot shooting.
And you know.
I'm not blaming anybody.
This is our problem.
And So what I'm here for is that
we can come together as a community,
because it doesn't just affect me,
it affects us all.
It affects all of us. And so.
Like I said.
I've been on this journey for a long time.
And. I have a plan. And I hate that.
My child had to be. The one. To have me.
I just hate that my child had to be.
The one.
Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Thank you.