How it Went Down

by Kekla Magoon
Lexile:  560
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

16 year old Tariq, who is black,  is dead, shot twice by Jack, who is white.  Several eyewitness accounts differ on how things went down.  Did Tariq have a gun?  Did Tariq not have a gun?  Did Jack act in self defense?  Did Jack read the situation incorrectly?  Day after day, the stories grow and change...but the one thing that won’t change is that Tariq isn’t coming back.  For those who knew him, this has left a gaping hole in their lives and in their plans for the future.  This story is told from multiple perspectives of people who were present at the shooting and from those who knew Tariq the best.