Quaylyn “Q” Carter grew up amid poverty and crime in North Braddock, the youngest son of a hard-working single mother.

He graduated from Woodland Hills High School, then earned a criminal justice degree at Seton Hill University. After working for a sheriff in North Carolina, he returned to Pittsburgh, helped raise four children and worked to launch an acting career.

Last year, he got his big break, starring as a contestant on the popular Netflix reality-TV series “The Mole.”

But, earlier this week, he learned success couldn’t shield his family from the world he knew growing up.

Police found Carter’s son, Quaylyn Jr., fatally shot Tuesday morning inside a vehicle in Wilkinsburg.

“Little Q,” as his father called him, was 13 days away from his 22nd birthday.

“I grew up around this — I had friends who were killed when I was younger. I know people doing life in prison,” Carter, 43, of Monroeville, told TribLive Thursday. “This was the life I was handed. And I worked hard to make sure this wasn’t my kids’ fate.

“But then you get that phone call. And it just shatters your world.”

Police have released little information about Quaylyn Jr.’s death.

Wilkinsburg police found Carter’s eldest child around 7:35 a.m. inside a vehicle on the 1600 block of Penn Avenue. He had been shot multiple times. A medical examiner pronounced him dead at the scene.

Allegheny County Police are investigating the shooting — standard operating procedure for a homicide outside of Pittsburgh. No arrests have been made.

Carter said he last spoke with his son on Saturday. He was busy working shifts as an Amazon delivery driver, his father said. The young man had moved into an apartment of his own in Monroeville just three or four months earlier.

On the phone, Carter talked about watching a football game on TV with the young man who shared his name. They never got to.

“I never would have guessed in a million years that would’ve been the last time I spoke with my son,” Carter said.

Funeral plans remained tentative Thursday — but a GoFundMe campaign started by Quaylyn’s aunt had raised nearly $12,000 to help pay for them. Quaylyn’s family is gathering in Pittsburgh to mourn, Carter said; the young man’s mother, Carrie Hainesworth, flew in from North Carolina earlier this week.

Quaylyn had graduated from Gateway High School in the throes of the pandemic. Recently, he signed up to take HVAC classes at Community College of Allegheny County, his father said.

A believer in homeopathic and natural medicines who was always highly conscious of the food he ate, Quaylyn also had aspirations, though vague, to leave Pittsburgh someday, Carter said. Sometimes, he talked about starting a farm.

“He was finding himself,” Carter told TribLive. “And he wanted to do big things.”

Quaylyn was Carter’s first-born, arriving when his dad was just 21. His brother Amare, now 19, was born a couple of years after him. Then came sisters Tienna, 13, and Callie, 10.

As a teen, Quaylyn played football in the Gateway Midget Football Cheerleading Association, a youth league for kids ages 5 to 13 in Monroeville and Pitcairn.

Kip Stewart started volunteering for that program after moving to Monroeville 16 years ago. Stewart said Thursday that he saw Carter reflected in his son as the young man “was growing into his own version of himself.”

“Quaylyn was a good guy and he came from a good family,” said Stewart, 46. “His father was proud of him — and the community was, as well.”

Carter isn’t sure what comes next.

His second-act career, which followed a nine-year run as a Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus driver, is doing well. He recently appeared in an episode of “New York Homicide,” a documentary series. He’s done some commercials and appears in a short film set for release soon.

The last couple of Novembers have been tough, Carter said. This month marks three years since Carter’s mother died following a cancer relapse.

Carter said he’s not thinking of much this week beyond “Little Q.”

“That was my boy. That was my baby,” Carter said. “I just want justice. I just want to get justice for Q.”

Anyone with information about Quaylyn’s death is asked to call the Allegheny County Police Tip Line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS (1-833-255-8477). Callers can remain anonymous.

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