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Investigators: Suspects in Durham boy's shooting death were 'increasing their position' in gang

Federal murder charges have been filed against two alleged gang members who investigators say shot and killed 9-year-old Z'yon Person in August 2019.

Posted Updated

By
Joe Fisher
, WRAL reporter
DURHAM, N.C. — Federal murder charges have been filed against two alleged gang members who investigators say shot and killed 9-year-old Z'yon Person in August 2019.

Antonio Davenport Jr. and Dival Magwood were indicted in October on federal charges of racketeering - murder, discharging a firearm and use of a firearm in furtherance of racketeering resulting in death. The charges were sealed until last week.

Z'yon was in a car on the way to get ice cream with his family when he was shot in a residential area near the intersection of Duke and Leon streets in Durham. Many in Durham were devastated by the shooting and sought for answers for weeks.
“He was a little tot, just beginning his life," Sandra Person, Z'yon's grandmother, told WRAL News in 2019. "But we’re going to live his life for him.”
Z'yon Pearson

Investigators said Davenport and Magwood were involved in criminal drug, gun and fraud activities that crossed state lines, according to the indictment. Authorities said the shooting was “for the purpose of maintaining and increasing position” within their gang.

"In 2019, after the murder of a 9-year-old boy, I told the people of Durham that federal prosecutors and investigators would work diligently with our state and local law enforcement partners to combat violent crime in their community,” U.S. Attorney Matt Martin said in a statement. “The federal indictment of Antonio Davenport and Dival Magwood is a direct result of that federal-state collaboration."

Davenport, 24, was charged with Z'yon's death in October 2019. Magwood and Derrick Dixon were charged in the case a month later.

Murder and weapons charges filed against Dixon have since been dismissed, according to the Durham County District Attorney’s Office.

State murder charges against Magwood were dropped on Feb. 3. He remains in custody in Atlanta on other federal charges.

Davenport, a local hip-hop star with The 83 Babies, which has released a music video and recorded several songs about gang violence and guns, still faces state charges in addition to the federal charges.

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