The father and grandmother of a 1-year-old who was shot and killed in Brooklyn over the weekend issued a strong message to the boy’s killers.
Davell Gardner Jr. was shot and killed Sunday evening by two men as he was sitting in a chair during a family cookout, according to authorities. He was shot in the stomach and died from his injuries at a local hospital.
“For the cowards that did this, you should be ashamed of yourself because everybody talks about Black Lives Matter. What about baby lives? What about teenager lives?” the boy’s grandmother, Samantha Gardner, said during a segment on Fox News’s Hannity on Monday evening. “You took an innocent child from a mother and a father, as well as the grandparents, and I don’t think it’s fair.”
“You can go to hell,” she continued. “Excuse my expression, but you took something that was precious from me, precious from my son, something precious from his mother, and we will never see him. He cannot come back. He cannot wake back up. He was an innocent little baby, and he’s gone forever.”
Police officials asked the public on Monday to come forward with any information on the shooting.
1-year-old Davell Gardner Jr. was shot and killed in New York City as gun violence continues to surge.
His family spoke out to the @seanhannity show.
“Everybody talk about ‘Black Lives Matter.’ What about baby lives? You took an innocent child from a mother and a father…” pic.twitter.com/plynPXFbms
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) July 14, 2020
The boy’s father, Davell Gardner Sr., lamented how he now has to bury his son instead of preparing for his second birthday in a couple of months.
“I’ve got to put my son in the ground now,” he said. “He’s only one. His birthday is in two months. In two months. He didn’t live to see two. He didn’t live life. It’s like, I wanted to get him out of this violence before something like this happened.”
“You took my son’s life,” he added. “I can’t get that back. I can’t hold him no more. I can’t hear him calling me ‘daddy’ no more. I can’t kiss him no more. I can’t play with him no more.”
The interview was conducted by Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones, who asked the family if they believe others think the boy’s life mattered.
“No,” Gardner Sr. replied. “And anybody who says that, they are just lying because if you know information, that needs to be said. This is my son. He died. Whatever information you know, you need to tell me. It needs to be known. I need this information. Because these guys just took my son’s life. For what? He didn’t do nothing to nobody.”
The shooting is just the latest tragedy in a recent spike in violent crimes in New York City.
This weekend, there were 15 shootings in 15 hours across the city, including a 21-year-old who was shot in the head in Brooklyn while sitting in a car.
The number of shootings that took place in the city last week is more than triple the number of shootings that were reported during the same time last year. There were 43 shootings last week compared to 13 during the same time period in 2019.
