Airick Leonard West remembers one of his gentlemen: Dshawn Clayton

Airick Leonard West remembers the six or seven times Dshawn Clayton knocked on his door early

in the morning last year.

“Airick, I missed the school bus,” the 15-year-old would say. “Can I get a ride to school?”

At first it was a little bit annoying, says West, a member of the Kansas City School Board. “When I reflected on him, it really

said a lot about who Dshawn was becoming and where his priorities were. I really admired him that he would take the time to walk down to

the next block and look for a way to get to school, because he didn’t

have to. That’s what I really admired about him.”

Clayton was one of West’s “gentlemen” — neighborhood kids who tag along with West wherever he goes. Clayton showed up in photos (like the one above) accompanying Carolyn Szczepanski’s 2008 profile of West. In the photo above, he’s second from the left, the one with the out-of-control hair, who West seems to be looking at.

On June 20, West posted a pair of Facebook messages about him. 

Airick Leonard West mourns his fallen gentleman.

deshawn’s the second one (with the crazy hair). i was realizing today

that he’s a major reason that i started wearing my hair in all kind of

big and crazy ways — that was just how deshawn frequently rolled.

Clayton was accidentally shot in a friend’s basement on June 16. He was declared brain dead and kept on life support for several days while his organs were removed for donation. Clayton died on June 25.