18-month-old's fatal shooting marked 8th homicide of a child in Pittsburgh region this year

De’Avry Thomas’ death Sunday in Downtown Pittsburgh gave him the tragic demarcation of being the city’s youngest homicide victim this year, which has seen more young people fall victim to gun violence — a grim trend of recent years.

The 18-month-old child was buckled into his car seat Sunday afternoon when someone opened fire on the gray Jeep Wrangler he was in. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Londell Falconer, 26, was arrested Monday afternoon for his alleged role in the shooting at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Stanwix Street. A second suspect, 23-year-old Markez Anger, remained on the run.

While De’Avry’s death at just 1 year old is an outlier, the number of children falling victim to gun violence has grown in recent years. The average age of homicide victims in Allegheny County has fallen to 28 so far this year, down from 36 just four years ago.

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Including De’Avry, eight children aged 18 or younger have been killed by gunfire this year. Marquis Campbell, 15, was gunned down while he sat in a school van waiting to go home in January. Teron Williams was shot and killed in Knoxville on Feb. 23, and four days later, Amari Mitchell died in a shooting in Homestead. Both were 18.

Dayvon Vickers, 15, was shot to death while riding his bike on a warm late March day. In the early hours of Easter, Jaiden Brown and Matthew Steffy-Ross, both 17, died in a mass shooting at a large Airbnb party on the city’s North Side. Two days later, 17-year-old Avante Booker was killed in a triple shooting in Wilkinsburg.

In Allentown, Isaiah Anderson, 17, was gunned down and two others were injured in a shooting May 9 on busy East Warrington Avenue.

De’Avry became the city’s youngest victim Sunday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. Eileen Smith had just finished up a Bible study class that she called with members of her church.

“(I wanted to see) how my church is coping with this,” said Smith, director of the South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace. “I wanted them to just speak about it. I went to the Scriptures: He is the light of the world.”

Of equal importance to the prayers and faith in God, she said, are the actions and resolve. She called the issue a campaign of violence against — and often by — children that has been wrought by myriad factors: the pandemic, poverty, unstable home lives, lack of father figures, absent mothers and just overall hatred.

She said kids need outlets other than social media, where posts can spark fights and threats that bleed into real life – and have real-life consequences.

Smith said it is up to everyone — community leaders, school leaders, business owners, police, parents, family members and any regular person out there — to come together to protect and nurture the city’s youth. They are, she said, the future.

“We’ve got to love on as many kids as we can,” she said. “Love on them … and just tell ourselves we are not defeated.”

Barbara Jean Johnson, De’Avry’s grandmother, couldn’t bring herself to speak anymore about her grandson Tuesday. She said the stress has been overwhelming, and she hasn’t been able to sleep since the shooting Sunday afternoon.

The day prior, family members gathered at the West End Overlook to release balloons and remember the little boy they called Baby D.

“Everyone loved him — he was a special child to all,” she told WPXI-TV just after they’d sent the balloon skyward.

She and her family, she said, are getting by.

“We’re doing all right so far.”

Police have said the Sunday shooting was targeted, but if investigators know who the target was, they have not revealed that information.

“Of course the baby was not the intended target,” Assistant Chief Lavonnie Bickerstaff said at a late Sunday media briefing, noting that “the individuals that were in the car that committed the crime – there was a target but I can’t go into who it was. But it was not the mother.”

Falconer’s arrest Monday came less than 24 hours after the shooting. He initially denied he was a part of the shooting but later admitted that he’d been driving the Jeep Compass from which the shots were fired. He is charged with homicide and conspiracy.

Anger faces homicide charges. He was not in custody as of Tuesday afternoon, and police have not indicated what role they believe he played in the fatal shooting. The affidavit of probable cause against Anger remained unavailable.

Security cameras at 1 PPG Place captured the shooting.

Police said the footage shows the Wrangler on the side of Fourth Avenue as the Compass, which had Illinois plates, turns left from Stanwix. The passenger in the Compass is sitting in the window and starts firing shots over the roof of the vehicle toward the Wrangler. Police noted a gray square on the hood of the Compass, according to the complaint.

A few hours later, police responded to Troy Hill for a suspicious vehicle report, investigators said. They found the Compass parked with no registration plates on Tinsbury Street. Detectives found the Illinois license plate in a nearby trash can along with cleaning supplies and a can of Red Bull. A fingerprint from the Red Bull can, police said, belonged to Falconer.

Shortly before 4 a.m. Monday, police received word that Falconer was at UPMC Mercy with injuries from an unrelated shooting, according to the complaint. At the hospital, Falconer denied he’d been on the North Side but then said he’d been in Manchester visiting family.

Later, at police headquarters, he denied involvement in the shooting. Shown the video evidence, however, Falconer told detectives “I was the driver,” according to the complaint. Investigators said Falconer did not provide more detail, and the interview ended shortly after his admission.

A motive for the shooting remained unclear, with police and city officials keeping mostly mum on the situation other than to pledge their support and vow change.

“I cannot imagine the grief that this family is experiencing, losing an 18-month-old baby,” he said. “But I want to show our city that we’re going to do everything that we can to make this summer safe, especially for our children. These acts of violence cannot and will not hold our city hostage. Enough is enough.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Smith.

“We’re not about to let this violence pandemic hold us hostage,” she said. “And that’s exactly what it’s doing. People are discouraged. They’re fearful. They’re feeling hopeless.”