Remembering victims of violent crime
Second of a four-part series profiling the 34 victims of homicide in Delaware County in 2015.
In a series of profiles running through Wednesday, the Daily Times will be sharing glimpse into the lives of the 34 individuals whose lives were lost at the hand of another in 2015.
• DERRICK BURRELL SR., 47, was one of 11 children, and the 10th born sibling.
Most people called him Ofie. Except for the children; they called him Mr. Ofie.
“He was my baby brother,” said Cardrina “Cardy” Manning, 71, of Chester. She raised him from about the age of 14.
A handyman, she said he liked to help others, especially senior citizens. He also liked to carry candy to give out to the children in the neighborhood. It didn’t matter what kind.
“If he came to your house and you had a dish of candy, he’d take a handful for the kids,” said Manning.
Since he didn’t have a car, a bicycle was his mode of transportation. He had a couple to choose from. He was residing on Second Street in Chester at the time of his death.
It was on April 21, 2015, when he was found stabbed to death in a vacant lot near Third and Kerlin streets in Chester. Officers’ attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. Manning believes her beloved brother’s spirit lives on, and that he may even be checking in with the family, on occasion.
After Christmas dinner, while Manning was cleaning up the dishes, she said one of the utensils hanging from the wall fell for no reason. It wasn’t the first time something like that has happened. When a photograph of Ofie recently fell to the floor for no reason and the frame broke, Manning replaced the frame and returned it to its rightful spot on the TV stand in her living room – only for it to fall again.
If it’s Ofie, Manning said, it’s OK with her.
A homicide investigation is ongoing by Detective Charles Bothwell of the Chester Police Department, and Detective William Wright of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with information is asked to contact Bothwell at 610-4477908, Wright at 610-8914700 or 911. • DOMINIC GEORGE was fatally shot on April 24, eight days after he had a party celebrating his 22nd birthday.
He talked to mom on the Monday before his death.
“He told me, ‘I got it right,’ ” recalled Kristina George-Wright. When she asked her son what he meant, he explained that he’d found a job and would be moving soon to Philadelphia .
George-Wright, who said Dominic was easily “the most challenging” of her eight children, was happy for her son. Before the call ended, they both said, “I love you.”
Throughout his life, her son was surrounded by many good people who loved him. He was the godson of the Fred Pickett, Chester High School’s legendary basketball coach, and Marrea Walker Smith, a former Chester councilwoman, and like a nephew to Chester Police Capt. Darren Alston, she said.
“He was a good hearted young man,” Alston said. “I took him in as family because his stepfather was one of my best friends.”
Alston said Pickett mentored him.
It was about 10 p.m. on April 24, 2015, when Chester police were dispatched to the 900 block of McDowell Avenue in response to reports of shots fired. Arriving officers found paramedics working on George before he was transported to Crozer Chester Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. He’d been shot numerous times.
George-Wright now keeps tabs on all the homicides in Chester. She has a banner honoring 193 homicides, dating back to 1980.
Having watched crime shows on TV, she believed her son’s case would have been swiftly solved.
“Here I am, crying the same tears,” she said. “I miss everything… I miss him walking into my house. I miss his smile. I miss his conversation. I miss him being around his brothers and sisters, because they miss him, too.”
Dominic was a special needs child, according to his mother.
“He caused me more hell some days. But he still loved me, and I loved him,” she said. “He’s the one I went to court for, visited in juvenile. But that was in his youth. As a young man, he had changed. He got a job. He took care of his son, and he had a baby on the way.”
Her son sold drugs, and he did time for robbing people, George-Wright said.
“But he did change into a good man,” she said.
A homicide investigation is ongoing by Detective Nelson Collins of the Chester Police Department and Detective Sgt. William Gordon of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with information is asked to contact Nelson at 610-447-8431, Gordon at 610-891-4700 or 911.
• DOLAN T. ALSOP was a 60-year-old Darby Borough man who walked with a cane and was known as a harmless drug addict in the neighborhood. He had a crippled left arm – from which stemmed his nickname, “Chicken Wing,” a moniker that those who knew him said he never seemed to mind.
“He was a great guy, everybody loved him. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body,” said Paula Brown, former Darby Borough mayor and longtime borough resident. “He was a happygo-lucky kind of guy and it’s a shame his life was taken that way.”
Alsop was found dead in the entrance hallway of a boarding house in the 400 block of Main Street in Darby Borough in the wee hours of May 8, 2015. Early on in the homicide investigation, Darby Borough Police Chief Robert Smythe said Alsop’s killer was lying in wait.
In announcing murder charges May 14 against 17-year-old Rashon Sargent, Smythe said, “This guy at 17 is a coldblooded murderer.”
In November,2015, Sargent, 18, was convicted of first-degree murder, following a two-day trial. He was also found guilty of possessing an instrument of crime, but not guilty of robbery. Jurors deliberated for more than five hours.
“He wasa great guy, everybody loved him. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body.” — Paula Brown, former Darby Borough mayor on Dolan T. Alsop “He was my baby brother.” — Cardrina “Cardy” Manning on Derrick Burrell Sr.
• ESHON MILLS celebrated his mother’s 50th birthday on Jan, 5, 2015, at a party she threw for herself.
“He was my baby boy,” said Dinnetta Mills.
Mills cherishes the memories they made that night, as well as him being home with the family for Christmas week 2014.
The day after Christmas, Eshon’s siblings drove all night to pick him up from jail in upstate Pennsylvania where he served time for a firearm conviction that should never have occurred, his mother said.
“Eshon walking through that door … that was my Christmas present. We have it on video,” she said.
One of four children, Eshon, 25, had two older brothers and a younger sister.
When she was carrying Eshon, Mills said she was so sure she was having a girl that she never even thought about a boy’s name. When her third son made his appearance - she decided on Eshon – a name her sister, Danielle Perez, had picked out.
When he was a young boy, she said, “He was funny and mischievous.” Remembering made her chuckle.
As if it were yesterday, she said she can still hear him calling out for her whenever he became frustrated with a video game.
As a young man, she said, “He was a fun guy. He was a caring person and he showed it.”
It was at 8:59 p.m. on May 10 when Chester police responded to the 1100 block of Pine Lane for a report of a shooting. Mills was found lying face down in the street, next to a 2014 Ford Fusion bearing New York license plate GRB-3545. Mills, who appeared to be suffering from a gunshot wound to the head, was taken to CrozerChester Medical Center. At the hospital, Mills had no brain activity and was later pronounced dead from the injury.
Mill said she’d decided to donate her son’s organs.
“I knew he would want me to do that,” she said.
Mills is aware of a 15-year-old boy who received one of Eshon’s kidneys.
A homicide investigation is ongoing by Detective Patrick Mullen of the Chester Police Department and Detective Michael Jay of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with information is asked to call Mullen at 610-447-7813, Jay at 610-891-4700 or 911.
• SHARIF FREEMAN was the 33-year-old son of Sherita Freeman and Roderic Vicks. In addition to his parents, he’s survived by five children, and two younger siblings. A lifelong city resident, he attended Catholic schools and earned honor roll many times. Science was his passion.
“He was very intelligent,” said his mother. “He was a standup kind of guy. He was a loving son and he cared about family.”
His mother was such a fan of actor Omar Sharif that she named her son after him, in part.
His full name was Sharif Nadir, which in Arabic according to Sherita, means rare and precious.
“He lived up to his name,” his mother said.
It was about 2:35 p.m. on May 13, 2015 when Chester police were dispatched for a report of a shooting. Freeman, who had multiple gunshot wounds, had no pulse when police found him in the street in the front of the 1100 block of Johnson Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I don’t want him to be just another statistic,” Sherita Freeman said. “He had family that loved him and misses him. We come from a closeknit family. He had grandmothers who taught him. He was like another father to his brothers, they looked up to him. His younger cousins, they admired him. They knew his heart, they knew what kind of guy he was and that he was passionate about everything that he believed in.”
More recently, he’d been working in food services. Like his mother, he was a very good cook. She told him he should go to culinary school, but he wasn’t interested.
His signature dish was tilapia stuffed with crab.
“Everybody loved it,” Sherita Freeman said. “Nobody could make it like him. We tried. We would watch him, but nobody could duplicate it.”
A homicide investigation is ongoing by Detective Robert Whitaker of the Chester
Police Department. Anyone with information is asked to call 610-4477908 or 911.
• DAVID VELAZQUEZ, 21, thought everything was funny.
“He was a jokester, the life of the party … He could have taken his show on the road,” his mother, Nicole Thompson, 42, said.” She compared him to Kevin Hart.
Velazquez, one of four children, could talk to anyone, she said. But there were times when his bubbly, non-stop personality wore thin.
“He could be our pain in the butt,” she said.
But for the most part, she said, “To know him, you would love him.”
It was at 11:17 p.m. on May 27 when Chester police responded to the 2700 block of West Third Street for a report of a shooting. Velazquez was found lying on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head. Paramedics from Crozer-Chester Medical Center pronounced him dead at the scene.
Velazquez is also survived by two daughters, 4-year-old Kimor and 1-yearold Noor.
A homicide investigation is ongoing by Detective Joseph McFate of the Chester Police Department and Detective Adam Sendek of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with information is asked to call McFate at 610447-7908, Sendek at 610-891-4700 or 911.
• THOMAS CHILDS never used the word “step” when he talked about his two children and six grandchildren.
“He was so accepting of my children,” said widow Ginger Stevenson Childs.
They’d already known each other, but there was something special when they ran into one another at the old Pop’s Barrell Inn on 69th Street. They started talking, and laughing – and didn’t stop for 17 years.
Thomas Childs, 63, of Aston, was shot
“I don’t want him to be just another statistic. He had family that loved him and misses him. We come from a close-knit family. He had grandmothers who taught him. He was like another father to his brothers, they looked up to him. His younger cousins, they admired him. They knew his heart, they knew what kind of guy he was and that he was passionate about everything that he believed in.” — Sherita Freeman on her son Sharif Freeman
and killed in the early morning hours of June 9 outside Ridgway Industries in Yeadon, where he was a truck driver for 15 years. His elusive killer fled the business complex at 6250 Baltimore Ave. with less than $30 and Childs’ cell phone. The cash and cell phone were later recovered in nearby Fernwood Cemetery.
“I loved my husband,” Ginger Childs said. “He was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, brother and employee. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for anyone. He is desperately missed every day.”
With about 120 guests, theirs was a big wedding at St. Cyril of Alexandria Church in East Lansdowne when they tied the knot on March 10, 2001. It was her second marriage, his first.
“I fell in love with his smile,” Ginger Childs said. “He was a kind man.”
When they danced for the first time as husband and wife at the PolishAmerican Club, it was to the song, ‘This I Promise You,” by ‘N Sync.
As a couple, they used to watch the wedding video often. She had the VHS tape converted to a disc.
More recently, the widow said, “I put it in one day and I had to turn it off.”
A homicide investigation is continuing by Detective Joseph “Jay” Houghton of the Yeadon Police Department. Anyone with information is asked to contact Yeadon police at 610-623-1500. There is a $16,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Childs’ killer.
• CHRISTOPHER EATON STRAKER was 21 years old when he died. He was a Philadelphia resident.
A passerby found his body in a wooded area along the CSX tracks near Third and Fern streets in Darby Borough, about 2 p.m. on June 9, 2015.
“At first, he thought he was sleeping, but then realized (he was deceased) and called us,” Darby Borough Police Chief Robert Smythe said at the time.
Straker was shot at least once in the face.
An investigation is ongoing by Darby police.