Community shows it cares about 4 victims

The year-old quadruple homicide remains
unsolved.

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Clutching candles in their hands and carrying photographs, about 100 loved ones and neighbors of the four young people killed in a quadruple homicide one year ago crowded the street and sidewalk in front of the murder scene.

The candlelight vigil was organized by Councilman Paul Drennen, D-5th, at the request of family members of Danielle Parker, one of the murder victims.

Parker, 22, Anthony M. Crockett, 23, Christopher D. Howard, 24, and Marvin E. Boone, 19, were found shot to death Jan. 29, 2007, in a second-floor bedroom inside 548 W. Evergreen Ave. on the city’s South Side. The crime remains unsolved.

Danielle Parker’s mother, Brenda Parker, said she was grateful for the turnout. She said she wanted to conduct the vigil to show that the community still cares.

“The people in this community need to stop killing each other, stop fighting with each other and start loving each other,” Brenda Parker said.

She described her daughter as a wonderful person whose life was just beginning.

“She had just started a new job,” Brenda Parker said. “She was talking about going to school.”

She hugged her nephew, Markell Dorsett, 10, close to her as she spoke. Danielle was his godmother.

When asked if he missed Danielle, Markell burst into tears, unable to speak.

Those attending carried photographs and wore T-shirts bearing pictures of those killed and the loved ones they left behind. Some didn’t want to talk.

Brenda Parker said that if she could speak to the person or people responsible for the four murders, she would ask them how they could do it.

“It’s not even the why because God will answer that in time, but how? How could a person just do something so evil to four people?” she asked.

Her daughter left a daughter, Chi’Eniya Dill, 5, who lives with a relative.

Drennen said people from all sides of town attended the vigil because the quadruple homicide, and crime in general, concerns the entire city.

Myeshia Traylor said Danielle was her best friend. The two knew each other their whole lives.

“We did everything together,” Traylor said, tears streaming down her face. “Whenever you saw her, you saw me.”

The two spoke the day when Danielle was killed.

“She was on her way to work, and I told her to call me when she got off work,” Traylor said. “She was supposed to stay at my house that night.”

Traylor never got that call. She learned later that night that her friend had been murdered.

“Why?” she asks of those responsible. “Did she do anything to your baby? To your mother, your father? No, because she wasn’t that type of person. She didn’t deserve this. None of them did.”