FACES BEHIND NUMBERS
FAMILIES, FRIENDS CONTINUE TO MOURN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE IN 2015
Delaware County’s homicide rate was down by 30 percent in 2015, but the emotions of loved ones left behind are as high as ever, regardless of circumstances.
In a series of profiles beginning today and running through Wednesday, the Daily Times will talk to many of those surviving family members, including mothers like Deborah Anderson and Lita Smith, who both lost sons to gun violence in Chester within the first 24 hours of 2015. By sharing some of their most precious memories, they and other parents, grandparents and siblings offer a glimpse into the lives of many of the 34 individuals whose lives were cut short by the hand of another in eight municipalities in Delaware County – Chester, Yeadon, Norwood, Upper Darby, Darby Township, Darby Borough, East Lansdowne and Eddystone.
Of the 34 homicides last year, the Jan. 25 shooting of Terrance Reason in Chester and the Feb. 4 shooting death of Tyler Williams in Upper Darby were ruled justifiable, while the shooting deaths of 16 -year-old Fasaad Johnson and 31-year-old Robert Edwards in Chester are pending justifi- able clearance, according to District Attorney Jack Whelan, Delaware County’s top law enforcement officer, and Chester and Upper Darby police.
Edwards was one of two police-involved shootings in the county last year.
“I’d love to get to zero,” said Chief Robert Smythe of Darby Borough, which had two homicides in his town last year.
• RAMON ANDERSON, 22, could play chess by the time he was in the fourth grade.
“He’d give me a run for my money,” said his mother, Deborah Anderson, who taught him the board game. “He was highly intelligent.” He also liked fencing and wrestling. Before graduating from Upper Darby High School in 2010, Anderson attended The Christian Academy in Brookhaven. His mom, 61, who resides outside Chester but in Delaware County, said his fencing and wrestling talents could have taken him to Temple University on a scholarship, but his heart wasn’t in that.
“He loved baseball. He wanted to play professional baseball,” she said.
Anderson, the youngest of five children, was deeply spiritual, according to his mom. When he lost a friend to gun violence in Upper Darby six or seven years ago, “he was devastated that someone could be gunned down for no reason,” she said.
“That is what happened to him … he was defending someone he considered a friend from a group of people when he lost his life,” she said.
It was about 12:52 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2015, when police were dispatched to the 1400 block of Culhane Street in Chester for a report of a subject down. Arriving officers found Ramon Anderson, 22, laying on the ground in a side yard on the block, unresponsive and with multiple gunshot wounds.
At the time of his death, Ramon was residing with his father in Chester, though his mother said he had plans to move out of the city.
In addition to his parents and siblings, Ramon left behind his two children, son Ramon Jr., 1 ½, and daughter, Ramya, 3.
“Ramon accomplished a lot at 22,” Deborah Anderson said. After working at a day-care facility for six months, he was promoted to manager.
“People that knew Ramon remember his tight hugs, and his genuine love for them,” she said. “When he hugged you, you knew it.”
For more information about his case, follow the “Justicefor Ramon Anderson” page on Facebook.
The ongoing investigation is being led by Detective Larry Weigand of the Chester Police Department and Detective Michael Jay of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with information regarding the unsolved homicide is asked to call Weigand at 610-4478426, Jay at 610-891-4700 or 911.
• ANTONIO ROBERTSON, 25, was killed on his father’s birthday.
An outgoing man, Robertson’s mother said he had aspirations of following his father’s professional footsteps.
“He was trying to start his own business … buying houses and then renting them out,” said his mother, Lita Smith. She was born and raised in Chester, and moved to Delaware three years ago.
Robertson was one of six children. He had two children of his own, daughter Janiyah, 6, and son Khacim, 4.
“He was devoted to his children,” Smith said.
Smith last spoke to her son early in the day on Jan. 1 He called to tell her that he was having a hard time reaching his dad. He’d wanted to make plans to take him shopping for his birthday, she said.
Smith said it was around 9 p.m. when she got the phone call from a girl with Antonio saying he had been shot. At the time, Smith was in Chester visiting a friend, and went to the scene.
It was 9:05 p.m. on Jan. 1 when police were dispatched to the 2700 block of West Sixth Street in Chester for a report of a shooting. Arriving officers found a black female standing outside a tan Buick. Inside the car was Antonio, lying across the front seat, unconscious and critically wounded.
“I got to see him as they put him in the ambulance,” his mother said, but only from a distance.
Antonio died in surgery at 11:35 p.m.
Detective Robert Whitaker of the Chester Police Department and Detective Thomas Scarpato of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation are leading the ongoing investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Whitaker at 610-447-7908, Scarpato at 610-891-4700 or 911.
• SHIEM GARY will be forever attached to drastic changes made in the Pennsylvania Search and Seizure laws in 2014 – lauded by police and prosecutors, but upsetting to civil liberties advocates.
As explained by an attorney, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that police officers may search vehicles without a warrant.
Police in Philadelphia found two pounds of marijuana under the hood of Gary’s car in 2010 - prompting him to file a lawsuit arguing police had violated his rights.
The case made its way to the state’s high court – where it was ultimately decided that while police need sufficient “probable cause’ to search a vehicle, they do not need a warrant.
Gary, 34, was shot and killed as he arrived at his home in Yeadon from work on Jan. 7, 2015. According to Yeadon police, he had just parked his red Jeep Grand Cherokee and was getting out of the vehi- cle when someone opened fire, near the intersection of Hazel and Fairview avenues, not far from where he lived. He was struck once in the torso.
“It looks like someone was waiting for him to arrive,” said Yeadon Police Chief Donald Molineux at the time. “He pulled into a parking spot at the end of Hazel Avenue and he was immediately accosted by someone, either one or more males.”
Gary, the married father of two young daughters, was pronounced dead at the scene. At the time, Gary was reportedly renovating abandoned homes in Chester and Philadelphia.
Through Detective Joseph “Jay” Houghton, who is leading the ongoing homicide investigation, Gary’s widow declined comment.
Anyone with information regarding the unsolved homicide is asked to contact Yeadon police at 610-623-1500.
• TERRANCE REASON, affectionately known as “Ty,” celebrated his 26th birthday four days before he was shot in Chester, on Jan. 25, 2015. He died a day later, on Jan. 26, 2015, as the result of a shooting that authorities later determined to be justifiable during a home invasion.
Reason was the second of five children and the oldest boy, said his mother, Taunya Cottman.
“He was fun loving, family oriented. He loved basketball and he loved being around family and helping anybody he could,” said Cottman, 48. One of his favorite things was cutting hair. In 2010, Reason was the recipient of the Mayor’s Award in Chester for his faithful services to the city.
Cottman said her son was looking forward to beginning a new job as a home health care aide.
“He was so excited,” she said.
It was at 11:47 p.m. on Jan. 25 when police were dispatched to the 1100 block of Walnut Street in Chester for a shooting.
Reason’s two children, daughter, Teonnie McIntyre, 7, and Terrance Reason 3rd, were his pride and joy.
“We always talk about him. Teonnie talks about her dad every day,” Cottman said.
“I miss him. I miss his smile. He had a beautiful smile … it could light up the world,” his mother said. “Just not being together, is the hardest thing.”
His cousin, Roneshia Tucker, captured that smile in a sketch she drew. Cottman keeps the framed sketch on a table in her bedroom.
“I look at it every day,” she said. “It’s my favorite.
•
MASON EDWARD HUNT, at 2, is the youngest victim among Delaware County’s 34 homicides in 2015. He died Feb. 3 of bluntforce trauma to his abdomen, which a physician testified occurred sometime in