'We need everybody': Detroit leaders mobilize after child, teen killed in triple shooting

Yahoo

6 hours ago

Samir Josiah Grubbs, 4, didn't have time to even make it up the slide's ladder at the Skinner Playfield next to Denby High School in Detroit before he was shot to death.
He beat his mom, Jasmine Grubbs, out of the car once they got to the park on June 27 — "that was his thing," she said — and raced towards the slide. They'd only been at the playground for a minute before gunfire erupted. She remembers everything in slow motion: Samir climbing, then shot in the back.
Grubbs feels empty now, because to everyone else, Samir was a 4-year-old boy, but to her, "Samir Josiah Grubbs was my everything. He was my world," she said while she returned to Skinner Playfield days after her son was killed, holding a small toy car he left in her bed.
In response to the bloodshed, Team Pursuit, a community violence intervention group in the area, mobilized CVI leaders from all over the city to Skinner Playfield on Monday, June 30 to demand more from the community — including themselves, parents, lawmakers and decision makers — to help the city's youth, to prevent more loss of life.
"We're going to touch every single household in this community. We are hitting the block — today," Quincy Smith, executive director of Team Pursuit, told the crowd at Skinner Playfield.
Samir wasn't the only victim of Friday's triple shooting. An 18-year-old boy, Daviyon Shelmonson-Bey, was killed, too. His father, Joseph Shelmonson-Bey, said the teen was always helping others, so he wasn't surprised to hear from witnesses that his son pushed a friend out of the way, the fatal rounds hitting his son instead. A 17-year-old was also shot but survived.
Detroit police had two people of interest in custody shortly after the shooting, but they've since been released, the department confirmed Monday. They're asking for anyone with information to come forward.
"We are still asking the community for their help in providing any information, video footage and anything additional that can assist in the investigation," said Jasmin Barmore, a spokesperson for Detroit police.
More: 4-year-old child, teenager killed in triple shooting at park by Denby High School
More: Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison: 'We're going to have a clean and safe summer.'
The violence intervention groups at Skinner Playfield had flyers with information on resources, like Team Pursuit's summer youth engagement program called "Protect the Zone," to hand out to neighbors. But before they set out, Smith recalled the moment he heard the news of Friday's tragedy.
"I said, 'another 4-year-old?'" Smith said. "My heart broke because I'm tired of it. You should be tired of it ... No more staying at home and watching the news and saying 'that's a damn shame.' We need everybody."
Joseph Shelmonson-Bey said he doesn't want another father to have to lose a child like he had. For him, that requires accountability. Shelmonson-Bey and Grubbs went to Skinner Playfield with violence intervention groups to share what it's like to lose a child − "I can't even explain it," the father said.
"As community, we need to hold ourselves accountable ... We need to speak out," Shelmonson-Bey said.
More: $200 dispute may have sparked shooting that injured 2 during Detroit fireworks, police say
Before the group assembled at Skinner Playfield went door to door, Maurice Hardwick, known as "Pastor Moe" made a promise to Detroit on behalf of the CVI leaders at the park:
"Change is coming. Now, now, now."
Phillip Sample, joined by dozens of others who have been doing the work for years to ensure their neighborhoods are safe, was energized when the group took to the streets surrounding Skinner Playfield to pass out flyers. He gave them to everyone he saw, like those in the three cars pulling out of the Family Dollar on Payton and Morang. As for the homes that went unanswered, he left flyers at their doors.
Sandy Turner of 4820Live, a longtime organizer in the neighborhood, was energized, too. What brought her to the streets that day isn't different from why Skinner Playfield was built in the first place. It was built by the community in 2016 with safety as its purpose, she said.
"We built the playground for these babies ... Who would have thought that somebody was senseless enough to shoot by a playscape? A playscape," she said.
But when they reached the playground where the shooting occurred, Sample, Turner, and the rest of the group became solemn. Sample said where they now stood was hallowed ground — it was the spot where a dispute ended in bloodshed, taking the lives of Samir, who loved to play and jump on his mother's bed in the mornings, and Daviyon Shelmonson-Bey, who took anyone in need in as a brother or sister, who his father loved raising.
So it was there that Sample decided the group would pray for the lives lost, for justice and for peace. Pastor Moe was one of the clergymen who led a prayer. When he did, he got on his hands and knees, other men followed suit.
"We touch this ground, this blood on this ground. We honor the life of this baby. We honor the lives of our children," he cried aloud. Sample was among the men on the ground, now in tears. The group would chime in: "yes, yes."
It was Dujuan "Zoe" Kennedy of Force Detroit, though, that wouldn't let the group leave without remembering what Daviyon Shelmonson-Bey's father had demanded.
"Look who's out here right now," Kennedy said. To those who didn't show up:
"Hold them accountable," he said.
Turner, Sample, and others will be back in the neighborhood on Tuesday, passing out flyers and sharing resources. Team Pursuit will have officially launched its "Protect the Zone" youth program. And Grubbs and Shelmonson-Bey will still hope their grief will actually prompt change.
Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit leaders mobilize after child, teen killed in triple shooting