If you met Hunter Davis, he’d strike you as a typical 11-year-old boy.

Curious and talkative, the boy with the brownish blonde hair came across as a 21st century Tom Sawyer.

But there was nothing typical about how Hunter was forced to live.

A questionable home situation forced Hunter and his older brothers to become what neighbors described as “vagabond kids.”

One neighbor told of how Hunter, who she believed may have pilfered a can of soda, traded it with her son so he could get an apple to eat.

In short, Hunter at age 11 was left to fend for himself trying to find a place to sleep for the night so he could stay off the streets.

Apparently, no one appraised Child Protective Services or local law of the 11-year-old’s plight. If they did, then Hunter Davis slipped through their fingers. We only know of his struggles now that he is near death after he was shot in the head Sunday at a friend’s home that neighbors referred to as a flop house. Neighbors said the front door was always open allowing youths to come and go at will. 

It begs the question for Manteca’s collective consciousness: Who’s looking out for the youngsters who are roaming the streets when there is little to no positive or nurturing home life to guide them toward adulthood?

The young man was trying his best to improve his life as he faithfully got on a red Sunday school bus every weekend to ride to the Central Valley Baptist Church on Airport Way. He probably got a doughnut or two and got to mingle with some great kids his own age. The church was there for him.

I met Hunter at Doctors Hospital of Manteca numerous times where he would walk into the coffee shack and ask for a sack of chips, snacks and drinks – never having any money to pay while obviously being hungry. We talked often. He was a likable kid who easily made conversation with adults. Hunter rarely attended school saying he would usually be late because he didn’t get out of the bed on time.

Now the neighbors in the Magna Terra Estates are hurting because they knew Hunter and his two older brothers 13 and 17. They did their best to do what they could when the boys would play with their kids in the street in front of their homes. One even provided shoes, shirts and underwear at Christmas. I talked with half a dozen of them who all shared their concerns for the kids and their environment.

Asking Hunter what he thought he would be doing when he grew up usually brought a casual shrug with a responding, “Don’t know!” 

He was a litany of questions – eager to learn what the adults were all about. He and his 13-year-old brother were often seen entering the hospital just to use its restrooms – finally being banned from the hallways.

A neighbor said she was shocked to see Hunter one day gulping water from her lawn sprinkler saying their water had been turned off at home.

The 11-year-old is a fighter, having survived being run down in the dark while crossing the street by a hit and run driver a year ago on Northwoods Drive and Yosemite Avenue. He was in the hospital in the intensive care unit for several days before he was eventually released to go home and continue to recuperate. Now he really has a battle for his life in critical condition at U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento where he was taken by helicopter early Sunday morning with a bullet in his head.

When nobody else is caring for kids like Hunter who is skipping school and not getting three square meals a day, maybe the police volunteers should be used to monitor the truants and check out their home lives and what they are doing after school.

It would be nothing less than a noble assignment for our police chief to assign his part-time volunteer SHARPS to attempt to keep track of these kids and mentor them the best they can making sure they get to school and to the Boys & Girls Club after school.

This is one case where Child Protective Services could have made a huge difference with the family when they were called to the home due to lack of electricity and water services. But they dropped the ball one more time when the parents said they would take care of the problems and didn’t, according to neighbors.

The community is currently worried about the transient population. The schools have a list of 700 “homeless children” — some are on the street, some are bouncing from couch to couch, and some are in motel rooms. Most, but not all, are with their mother and/or parents. We’d better start to worry even more. The schools do the best they can through their Health Services department, but they can do only so much. When children are left on their own to fend for themselves, scary things can happen – especially when they come across a loaded hand gun without adult supervision.

Boys are especially at risk. That was the impetus of the Big Brothers program in the major cities across the country. It continues to give successful adults in any community the chance to mentor the kids.

It would be an appropriate outreach for Manteca Police Chief Nick Obligacion to expand his volunteers to serve as a “Big Brothers” organization to show the kids on the streets that someone really cares who they are and whether they are surviving. 

As for Hunter Davis, we can only offer a collective prayer.