Grieving NYC family holds memorial for slain tot Davell Gardner’s 2nd birthday
Davell Gardner was just 22 months old when a stray bullet took his life at a Bedford-Stuyvesant playground — but in his too-short days he’d come to love football so much, it seemed he always had a ball in his little hands.
So when his grieving family celebrated the boy’s second birthday Saturday in Pulaski Playground — about 10 blocks north of where he died — footballs were everywhere.
Golden paper footballs covered the table, along with football bracelets and toys for the rest of the kids. The centerpiece was a bouquet of brown footballs atop silver stems.
“Ever since he was able to crawl and hold things he would hold a football,” said Davell Gardner Sr., who wore a heart-shaped locket around his neck with his son’s photo inside.
“He was a character. He would have a smile from ear to ear,” the dad said.
“He was very lovable. He affected a lot of people. If he was here, he would be running around playing with a football.”
Meanwhile, a “very robust investigation” continues into the toddler’s July 12 death at Raymond Bush Playground, according to one of the birthday party’s guests — Chief of Brooklyn North Patrol Judith Harrison.
Two suspects are already in jail for other recent homicides, she has told reporters.
On the day he died, “I vowed that I would support them,” Harris said of the boy’s family.
“Every shooting is tragic, but it certainly tugs on your heart strings when it’s a one year-old that’s shot. You can’t be cold to that.”
The father has set up a GoFundMe page in the boy’s honor; he hopes to fund a foundation that will host numerous projects on his son’s behalf.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano