6 days ago
Mother loses 3 sons to gun violence. Most recently in Indy's downtown mass shooting
Back-to-back calls filed into Xiyya Jackson's cellphone while she was sleeping at her Tennessee home.
Family and Indianapolis police started calling about 1:44 a.m. July 5 because they needed to deliver heartbreaking news: her 16-year-old son was gone.
Xavion Jackson, the youngest of six, was one of two teens killed during a mass shooting in downtown Indianapolis. Five more people between the ages of 16 and 21 were also injured.
'He said, 'I'm coming home after the Fourth, mama, I promise,'' Xiyya Jackson told IndyStar. 'This is my baby boy, and this is my third kid who has died of gun violence. It's not fair.'
The 42-year-old mother of four boys and twin girls lost another son to homicide when he was shot in January 2024 at Stanley Strader Park. His case remains unsolved. Her oldest son was shot and killed in 2021 outside a Waffle House on Pendleton Pike. An arrest was made.
Xavion Jackson was pronounced dead at the scene of the mass shooting that has caused city-wide outrage The problem of youth with guns downtown has circulated between City-County Council, Mayor Joe Hogsett, Prosecutor Ryan Mears, law enforcement, and community leaders since the shooting.
Parents and guardians have been asked to step up and get better control of their kids, but for Jackson and her family, the noise of now comes a little too late, especially when there's been a family history of violence that has plagued them for generations.
A 1992 Indianapolis Recorder news headline reads, 'ex-boyfriend confesses to pre-Thanksgiving killing.' A man told police he became upset while he and Rosa Pearl Jackson, 42, were walking along the edge of a river because she no longer wanted to be with him.
He confessed to choking and leaving her to drown. Her body was found in 1993.
That was Xiyya Jackson's mother. She was 10 years old at the time.
Years later, that type of fatal generational trauma would plague her again when she got into a decade-long relationship with a man who would father some of her children.
'I killed their dad,' Jackson told IndyStar. 'I was a victim of domestic violence. I was defending myself from their father and murdered him.'
Jackson shot Vincent Lanking Sr. at a Budget 8 Inn motel in March of 2017.
She would sit in jail for a year and a half until being found not guilty of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated battery in 2018. She wrote a book about the ordeal called No Vacancy: My Story of Domestic Violence, Murder, and the Children Caught in the Crossfire.
'The day after I was released from jail, my sister was stabbed over 50 times,' Jackson said.
On Aug. 19, 2018, Vickie Jackson, 45, was stabbed with a broken wine bottle by another woman during a fight, according to court documents. Surveillance footage captured the killing in an apartment hallway on the north side.
Her oldest son, Robert Howard Jr., 22, was shot and killed in 2021 following a dispute in the Waffle House parking lot on Pendleton Pike.
After he died, she moved to Tennessee and hoped the change would be better for her remaining children.
'But my boys kept running back to Indianapolis,' Jackson said. 'They said Tennessee was lame, and they wanted to be with their friends, plus we still had family in Indy. There were times when they'd just up and leave, and I had no idea where they were.'
Police reports reveal Jackson made numerous runaway reports from 2019 to 2023. When the kids were found, police would bring them back across state lines to their mother.
Her other son, Rondre Jackson, 19, was shot and killed in a neighborhood near Keystone Avenue and Stanley Strader Park in 2024. Xiyya Jackson believes one of his friends set him up, but police have released few details and no arrests have been announced.
'I'm just here. I'm trying to get some strength,' Jackson said. 'I feel empty. I just don't understand why this keeps happening to me. I wasn't hard enough on them.'
Brother and son, Robert Howard Jr.: Man dead in shooting following 'disturbance' at Lawrence Waffle House parking lot
Aunt and sister, Vicki Jackson: Woman arrested in fatal stabbing on north side of Indianapolis, IMPD says
Her remaining son, the namesake of the man she killed eight years ago, was with his brother downtown. The 17-year-old was arrested along with three other teens and charged with dangerous possession of a firearm, resisting law enforcement, and obstruction of justice.
Vincent Lanking Jr. was waived to adult court on July 8.
'We don't even know what happened. I've heard so many stories, and it was just a big mess downtown. We have to see and review the cameras,' Jackson said.
She'd let them visit Indianapolis to be with her goddaughter and enjoy the holiday.
'One story I heard is that Xavion was hit by a stray bullet,' Jackson said.
A probable cause affidavit for Lanking's arrest reveals that 20 minutes before the mass shooting on July 5, Indianapolis police officer Christopher Kaleel noticed the teen in all black clothing, with black gloves, and stopped him for looking suspicious.
Lanking started running, and while pursuing, Kaleel watched him pull out a tan Glock 19X from around his waist. The officer thought the teen was drawing the handgun to use against police and ordered him to drop it while pointing his department-issued firearm during the chase.
Lanking threw the gun into the air, tossing it aside, and Kaleel took him to the ground to place him into custody. Kaleel said he called the teen's mother, but said she was uncooperative and did not provide any additional necessary information.
'There's no point in going to get him now, so we're leaving him in there,' Jackson told IndyStar of her jailed son before he was waived to adult court.
Jackson acknowledges that her boys have been affected by a lot of the choices she made. She knows that their father's death and her incarceration caused trauma. While others ponder the issue of kids roaming the streets with guns, she is getting ready to bury another son while facing criticism for the decisions they made and the outcome it's caused.
Beyond the reality of his death, Jackson said her youngest son was a happy kid who loved music.
'Sometimes I'm shaking, and then the emotions come up, but then I'm just empty,' Jackson.
