Davis Was Committed to Stopping Violence

Dismayed at the brutality he saw in American society, New York City Councilman James E. Davis years ago started a nonprofit organization he named “Love Yourself” Stop the Violence.

On Wednesday, the former New York police officer fell victim to urban violence when he was fatally shot at City Hall, allegedly by a political rival, Othniel Boaz Askew. Davis was an outspoken councilman who had surprised the New York political community in 2001 by besting a rival favored by the Democratic Party to win a council seat in a seven-person race.

The 41-year-old Democrat represented the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, as well as parts of Crown Heights, Prospect Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Curbing violence was a central theme of his election campaign. He had earlier lobbied against the sale of realistic toy guns and the use of violent images in the media, taking on Toys ‘R’ Us and MTV in the process.

“I look at this like a war,” Davis had said on his Stop the Violence Web site. “It’s my mission in life to do whatever is necessary to rid violence from our communities.”

That cause stood out to his colleagues Wednesday.

“It’s ironic that he’s the one who got shot because he had worked so hard against violence,” David Weprin, a Queens councilman, said, adding that Davis was “clearly a likable guy.”

Askew had filed papers to run against Davis in a three-person primary this fall, New York Police Commissioner Raymond P. Kelly said.

In a local political newsletter, Davis was quoted last month as saying of his rival: “I’ve never heard of him. Or her.”

According to his City Hall biography, Davis grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from New York’s Pace University in 1989 and split the next four years as a corrections officer at Rikers Island and a city transit officer.

Davis, who is black, joined the police force in 1993, despite an earlier incident in which he claimed that two white officers arrested and beat him at gunpoint after they mistakenly thought he stole a car.

In 1990, James founded “Love Yourself” Stop the Violence, which opposed guns, drugs, teen pregnancy and school delinquency. The site describes Davis as a “supremely confident, multifaceted and infinitely courageous” man with “the makings of a legend.”

“To lose James Davis, who was a passionate, outspoken advocate on behalf of his district ... and the city at large is a terrible loss to the City Council,” said Council Speaker Gifford Miller.

Davis sometimes clashed with his colleagues. This year, he threatened to sue Miller after the speaker dropped him from a council committee for voting against a property-tax increase.

Calls to Davis’ office were not returned Wednesday. On an answering machine, a recording by Davis asked callers to leave messages. “We love you. We solicit your prayers,” he said.

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Times staff writers Geraldine Baum and Elizabeth Jensen contributed to this report.