Jayden Jamar Clay was a 2-year-old Black boy from Jackson, Georgia, who died on November 11, 2015, after a single .45-caliber gunshot struck him near his upper lip inside his home on W.W. Carr Avenue. Reports say Jayden and his twin brother were in the living room while their mother, Choice Clay, was in the kitchen; the firearm had been left where toddlers could reach it and the shot was initially treated as accidental. Early accounts left uncertainty about whether Jayden or his twin handled the gun.

Investigators identified the firearm’s owner as the mother’s then-boyfriend, Christopher Dwayne Askins (also reported as Christopher Ashkins), age 37, who turned himself in two days later and was arrested on charges described in reports as second-degree child cruelty and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; some reports also mentioned drug charges. Authorities said Askins was not in the home when the shot was fired. Later reporting noted the mother tested positive for marijuana and that other children in the home were placed in state custody. Was anyone in Jackson that night able to see what happened or has information that could clarify how the gun came to be accessible to the children?