Residents react to youth homicides with fear, sadness, silence

Nov. 27—Darryl Lothery Jr. didn't know 14-year-old Jaylen Pryor, but the recent shooting death saddened him nonetheless.

It hit home both figuratively and literally, as the eighth-grade Robinson Elementary School student was shot multiple times Nov. 22 while sitting in a parked car roughly two houses away from Mr. Lothery's on the 700 block on Woodland Avenue.

Incidents of gun violence are nothing new to Mr. Lothery, who recalls plenty of shootings over the years in his neighborhood and throughout Toledo. But this year seems different, he said, in that a growing number of these shootings seem to involve children and teens. And after the Pryor youth was killed, it made him rethink gun violence in his central Toledo neighborhood and people's reactions to it.

"Are we really that numb to gun violence to where somebody gets killed two houses down from you and we just continue on with our day?" he asked. "But it's like, we're conditioned to think that way because it happens around us."

The Pryor youth's death marked Toledo's 65th homicide this year, the highest on record. Of those, eight shooting victims are under 18 years old, accounting for roughly 12 percent of the overall homicides, according to The Blade's Homicide Report. Another child, 2-year-old Jordynn Smith, died Aug. 8 in her home after test results showed she died of fentanyl toxicity.

The tally does not include the children who survived being shot this year, nor instances where young teens were believed to be the shooters — such as the case of Kevin Taylor, Jr., who at 15 was arrested after police say he shot at officers from a moving vehicle in March. No officers were hurt, by bullets did strike a 74-year-old man nearby, killing him.

But this year bullets have struck children and teens while in their homes and walking in their neighborhoods, while sitting in parked vehicles and traveling in moving cars, and while playing in their front yards and at a community block party.

Less than three miles away from where the Pryor youth was killed, Amina Nash is likewise concerned about gun violence in her North Toledo neighborhood. She lives less than a block away from where 11-year-old Nathan Sumner and his 14-year-old brother Miguel were shot Aug. 20 while playing basketball in 300 block of Austin Street. Both were transported to Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center, where the younger child died two days later.

Ms. Nash said she knew both children and recalls hearing the shots that struck both boys, along with the screams from family members. She no longer allows her own children to play outside and would move away from the area if she could, in part because she's given up on police or city officials doing anything to stop the violence plaguing the area.

"I don't think nothing is really being done," she said. "I know there are investigations and everything that people have to be cognizant of, but to me, it's not enough."

Most residents in both Ms. Nash's and Mr. Lothery's neighborhoods who spoke to The Blade didn't want to do so on the record. All acknowledged the rising gun violence, and some expressed fear of allowing their children to play outside specifically because of the city's gun violence. At least one was in the process of moving to a different area.

Residents weren't the only ones hesitant to talk about Toledo's gun violence and how it's affecting communities.

Gretchen DeBacker, the city's acting communications director for the mayor's office, declined to allow JoJuan Armour, program manager of Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz's Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence, to be interviewed for this story.

Mr. Armour oversees the city's hired violence interrupters who work in neighborhoods by responding to threats and intervening before they escalate, as well as talking to community members.

Mr. Armour told a Blade reporter he was willing to talk, but first needed authorization from Ms. DeBacker, who declined to allow him to speak to The Blade Friday.

Toledo's child deaths

Little more than a month into 2021, a man was arrested on accusations he shot three of his girlfriend's young children, killing two of them.

Kevin Moore, 28, who was caring for the children at the time, is accused of fatally shooting Gabriel Phillips, 1, and Ahmir Phillips, 6, at the Byrneport Apartments on Feb. 5, according to police. A third child, Ashtan Phillips, 4, was wounded, and a fourth, Gracieana Phillips, 2, was unharmed.

Less than two hours after the shootings, the police department posted some detail to its social media accounts and asked the community to "Please pray for these victims, their families, and the first responders who were there tonight. This was truly a sad day for our community," they said on Facebook.

Tavion Brown, 15, would die little more than a month later from at least one gunshot, followed by 14-year-old Royce Chatman later that same month.

The killings and shooting incidents continued, but youths stayed off the homicide charts until this summer during a mass shooting at a Fourth of July block party in central Toledo, killing 17-year-old Stephon Johnson and injuring 11 others, whose ages ranged from 11 to 51.

The summer would see two more fatal youth shootings: 17-year-old James Hague who was killed in the 1900 block of Mansfield Road, and the killing of the Sumner youth in August outside his home.

Since that time, children and teens were shot, but avoided being killed until earlier this month when the Pryor youth was shot multiple times sitting in a vehicle.

Mr. Lothery said all killings are tragic, but it's all the more heartbreaking when they're so young.

"It's senseless, everything is senseless. Why do you have to kill somebody?" he said. "Life is one of the most precious things you can have and it's to the point where it gets you angry.

"Right now, I just try to make sure my own family is taken care of," he added.

First Published November 27, 2021, 9:01am