Fla. Mother and Son Are Attacked

A young girl plays on one of the many clothes lines in Dunbar Village in West Palm Beach, Fla. Saturday, July 7, 2007. Residents of the community complain that kids have nothing to do, and this is one of the reasons for the recent gang rape of a woman living in the complex. In the year leading up to the gang rape, police were called to Dunbar Village 717 times. (AP Photo/J. Pat Carter) (J. Pat Carter - AP)

He dropped out of school after spending three years in seventh grade. The family lives on food stamps and recently had to pawn their television and radio, Ruby Walker said.

"I just feel like he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. ... My son is not a rapist," she said.

Ruby Walker said she herself was raped twice, at ages 7 and 12. She said that just days before the Dunbar attack, someone tried to rape her again, and "my son came to me crying and said he wouldn't ever do that to anyone."

She has had her own problems with the law _ at least nine arrests on charges such as disorderly conduct, aggravated assault and battery, according to state records.

Avion Lawson was a headstrong kid, never listening to his mother, said his cousin, Cassandra Ellis.

"I knew he was bad, but I never pictured him to be that type of bad," Ellis said. She said one traumatic experience may have scarred him _ watching his older sister fatally stab a boyfriend.

"It was an accident. She killed her boyfriend. They was fighting, there was a knife," Ellis said. "He was there when it happened."

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City officials are quick to note that neither Lawson nor Walker lived at Dunbar, and say they are doing their best to make the place safe.

As quickly as overhead lights can be replaced, they are shot out, so officials are now considering bulletproof lighting.

"Isn't that quite a commentary on what the situation is there?" said City Commissioner Molly Douglas, whose district includes part of Dunbar. "Dunbar Village is a hell hole. They shouldn't have to live in fear."

More officers are hitting the streets, but "I just bow my head sometimes and think we just couldn't possibly have enough officers ever to take care of all of this," Douglas said.