There have been several rallies in support of Canul. Sentiments at the rallies have been that Canul allegedly shot Abbot during the commission of a crime being done to him and that the shooting was in self defense or justifiable because Canul had been beaten by other people on several earlier occasions.
Booth said she didn't want people to think her son was a bad person.
"I just want people to know that he was not a street thug or the monster they are making him out to be," Booth said. "I'm his mother and he has brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews who love him very much and he will be sadly missed. He did matter in this world."
Booth said her son had not robbed anyone in the past. The Logan Banner has checked arrest records in Logan and Lincoln counties and there are no arrest reports on file for Abbot.
"David worked at Burger King and he worked every day," said Booth. "He did live with me most of the time but he did have a girlfriend on Stratton Street who he stayed with sometimes. But David was abused also because he wasn't from around here."
Booth said when Abbot was shot there were staples in his head from a severe beating he received several days prior to the shooting.
"He had 15 staples in his head when he died from a beating that happened two days before he got shot," Booth said. "David has never, ever robbed or done anything like this to anybody before. And I still don't think that is what happened. I think there was more stuff to it than what meets the eye."
Booth said four males came to Abbot's kitchen door on Stratton Street the Friday night before the Monday shooting.
"David said they beat him with what felt like metal pipes," Booth said. "The hospital called me at 1 a.m. David was home in bed and why they came to his home and beat him in the head with metal pipes, I don't know and he don't know. He said it was dark and he opened the door because he thought it was his girlfriend coming home."
Booth said her son had never been charged with anything other than a drunken driving charge.
"The worst thing I ever saw him do was drink a little beer when he got off work," said Booth. "He might have smoked a little weed, but he was not on anything hard. I know that for a fact."
Booth said Abbot was staying with her following his beating and that he received a phone call from his girlfriend telling him to take another girl to the mall to pick some money up.
"He run down there and picked her up and an hour and a half, two hours later, I got the call to come and talk to them and they told me he was dead," Booth said. "There was more it than what meets the eye. David had no wallet, no money, no knife or no scissors ... all he had on him was his car key."
Allegedly, Abbot followed Canul out of Walmart after Canul cashed his paycheck and threatened him with a sharp object, while he removed his wallet from his back pocket. Canul allegedly pulled a gun from his pocket, warned Abbot away and then shot him in the back when Abbot fled. Abbot ran into Walmart and collapsed near the beauty salon, where he died moments later. Reportedly, the death certificate says Abbot died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Logan Police Chief E.K. Harper said Abbot was shot in the back and the bullet went through his lung and lodged in his chest.
Booth said Abbot may have used his key to try to scare Canul and that Abbot and Canul were familiar with each other.
"He did know the guy. I've heard him speak that name before. David said everybody called him Jesse because they couldn't say Jesus," Booth said.
Booth said she wanted to express her appreciation to those who came to Abbot's aid following the shooting. Shanda Miller, a beautician at the Logan Walmart Costcutters salon, rushed to his aid and asked for a nurse. She said a woman named Hannah came to do CPR on Abbot and asked for the scissors that were first reported as the weapon. Miller said the nurse wanted the scissors to cut off Abbot's shirt in order to perform CPR.
"I want to thank the nurse that tried to help him and the lady from the beauty shop ... Logan (Regional Medical Center) and anybody who had anything to do with trying to help my son," Booth said. "David could hardly walk after the beating but he drove to Walmart trying to help his girlfriend and some other girl and then he ended up dead. When the truth comes out, there is more to it than what meets the eye."
Booth doesn't deny what Abbot did, but questions his reason for doing it.
"He could have owed David money and David was demanding his money from him," Booth said. "He could have owed that girl money and David was trying to make him pay her, I don't know. I just know he had never tried to rob anybody before. He didn't have a weapon, all he had was a key. All he had to hold at that man's throat was a key and he shouldn't have done that. I'm not saying David was right -- he was wrong in doing whatever he done, but with 15 staples in the back of his head and being beaten like a dog two days before, how do I know that those head wounds didn't cause him to react that way? I don't know.
"David might have been 37, but he was still my baby," Booth said.
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