{UAH} DAVELL GARDNER WAS SHOT DEAD AT 22 MONTHS ONLY He would have been two years today

Grieving NYC family holds memorial for slain tot Davell Gardner’s 2nd birthday

By Khristina Narizhnaya

September 12, 2020 | 7:18pm

Dave Gardner Sr, father of Davell Gardner Jr., held a BBQ in honor of his slain son today.

Stephen Yang

 

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.

Members of the NYPD and friends and family attended today's memorial BBQ for Davell Gardner.

Stephen Yang

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

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