FORT LAUDERDALE — Dozens of officials, activists, and family members gathered next to the playground where a 3-year-old boy at a birthday party was killed in a drive-by shooting on Sunday, pleading for the violence to stop and for people to come forward with information.
The news conference, held Wednesday morning at Riverland Park, comes after a string of three drive-by shootings in the city in the last two months that left two men and a woman dead, her 2-year-old son hospitalized in a coma, and, on Sunday, killed 3-year-old Rylo Yancy while other toddlers and partygoers frantically ran from the gunfire.
“As a mother, I cannot find the words to fully express the pain and the suffering created by this senseless act of violence,” said Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman, who represents the district where Sunday’s shooting took place. “The loss of a child is a wound that never heals. A void that can never be filled. We stand here not just as individuals, but as a community, our community, my community, that refuses to allow our children to be slaughtered in this way.”
Mayor Dean Trantalis emphasized the need for shootings in the city’s minority communities to receive the same amount of attention and concern as if they took place elsewhere.
“What affects one part of the city affects all of us,” he said. “No child or family should be less than another.”
They were joined by Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Bill Schultz, Fire Rescue Chief Stephen Gollan, and members of several gun violence activist groups including the local NAACP, Circle of Brotherhood, Lauderhill Peace 365, and Moms Demand Action.
Rylo’s family members also attended the news conference, including aunts, uncles, his grandfather, and a girl named Chastity Fort, his cousin and close friend, who was at the birthday party the day he died.
“How do you feel about what happened to Rylo?” a reporter asked her.
“Sad,” she said.
Later, she stood with her family next to a picnic table and looked out at the playground, pointing out to them where the shots had come from.
Chastity and others were at the party about 4:30 p.m. Sunday when the gunshots erupted from a car and the shooter or shooters immediately fled, according to Fort Lauderdale Police. Rylo was taken to the hospital, where he later died.
Less than two weeks earlier, on July 8, a group of people sitting outside a convenience store in the 700 block of Northwest 10th Terrace were sprayed with bullets in another drive-by shooting that killed Sheldon Lawrence and Tiarra Holliday and left her 2-year-old son Deagoo hospitalized in a coma. He has since been released.
And a few weeks before that, on June 14, Michael McKinney was killed and four others were hospitalized in a drive-by shooting in the 2300 block of Northwest Eighth Street.
The three shootings took place within 3 miles of each other.
Asked whether police are investigating if the shootings could be connected, Schultz said, “Everything is a possibility and is open at this point because all the investigations are ongoing. We are certainly looking at all potential aspects of everything, including that.”
He did not provide any new details on the investigations or potential suspects Wednesday, instead emphasizing several times the need for more information from the community.
“We appreciate the information the community has provided for all these investigations,” Schultz said, “but we need more.”
Rylo wasn’t like other kids, family members said. He was sweet and innocent, yet wise, the beloved child in a close-knit family. He was only 3, but had “the mind of a 20-year-old,” according to his grandfather, Jerrold Pough, who wore a T-shirt that read “Happy first birthday, Rylo,” covered with baby pictures. Pough’s daughter, Rylo’s mother, is only 22, he said.
“Rylo was different,” he told reporters, getting choked up. “He wasn’t the average baby. I wish I could tell him that I got the message … out of the three years God let me borrow him, I want to let him know granddaddy got the message. And I want to tell him, granddaddy gonna get it together. I’m gonna get it together.”
Family members believe that someone who attended the birthday party was the actual intended target of the shooting, but hasn’t come forward.
“Whoever was here was a target, and my baby got caught up in the crossfire,” Pough told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Fort Lauderdale is not the only city experiencing a spate of shootings. Recently, Pompano Beach city officials, activists and residents have met with the Broward Sheriff’s Office to try to respond to a similar crisis.
On Wednesday, officials underlined the need for all of the cities to work together. Solutions offered were varied: Schultz pointed to a proliferation of stolen guns — 165 in Fort Lauderdale in the last year — and the need for responsible gun ownership. Local activists and pastors pointed to street culture and the glorification of violence in television shows and rap music.
“I used to be on the other side,” said Pastor Kyle Henry of Lauderhill Peace365. “I used to be the one causing the violence … I realized I was living a lie. My truth is I would rather see people live than go to another funeral.”
Marcus Isaac, an uncle of Rylo’s, does not think there is more law enforcement could do. He placed the blame squarely on the perpetrators.
“The police are doing a wonderful job,” he told the Sun Sentinel. “It’s not the police. It’s kids with guns.”
Others from the community, including Pastor Daniel Boyd of a nearby church, asked for concrete solutions like more surveillance cameras at the park so at least if there is another shooting, police might be able to catch the person responsible.
“I’m tired of hearing ‘it won’t happen again,’” Boyd said. “Next week it happens again.”
Authorities ask anyone with information to call Detective Juan Rodriguez at 954-828-6673, the Homicide Tipline at 954-828-6677 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
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