NICOLE SPARROW, IN GREEN SHIRT, MOTHER OF 15-YEAR-OLD DAHVEA SPARROW, WHO WAS KILLED LATE SATURDAY NIGHT, JULY 8, IN ALIQUIPPA: “HE WAS JUST A BEAUTIFUL SPIRIT…A GOOD KID, A FUNNY KID.”
Families in Aliquippa, Ambridge reeling over deaths of Dahvea Sparrow and Asaun Moreland
The tough, resilient, proud residents of Aliquippa and Ambridge just experienced two tragedies, 20 hours apart.
The families and friends of 15-year-old Dahvea Sparrow and 15-year-old Asaun Moreland are left to grieve their heinous shooting deaths; two African American teens, not even legally old enough to drive, with an entire life ahead of them, cut short.
“Dahvea Sparrow was my one and only son, my baby,” were the first words that came from the mouth of Sparrow’s mother, Nicole Sparrow.
Then, holding back tears, she said that she had to plan her only son’s funeral.
15-YEAR-OLD ASAUN MORELAND, 15-YEAR-OLD DAHVEA SPARROW.
“He was Dahv, to know him was to love him,” Nicole Sparrow said, during a news conference in Aliquippa on Sunday, July 9, standing feet from where her son was shot and killed around 11:35 p.m. the previous night. “He was just a beautiful spirit. He was a good kid, a funny kid,” she said.
Who could have ever thought that an hour or so after the press conference, another teen’s life would be taken, only a few minutes away across the aptly-titled Aliquippa-Ambridge bridge, in Ambridge. Moreland was walking on Church Street when two males reportedly approached Moreland, shooting and killing him. It’s unclear if both suspects were shooting, or only one. Police in Ambridge reported that Beaver County’s SWAT Team did corner one of the suspects, an 18-year-old, and eventually took him into custody. The second male had not been apprehended as of Tuesday evening, July 11.
Black grandparents remember the days when they could walk in their neighborhood, and the last thing anyone, young or old, would think is that there was a possibility of being shot. African Americans of a certain age remember the days when other adults in the neighborhood would look after them as kids, even telling their parents if the kid did something wrong. And when the street lights came on, it was time to get in the house.
Today, parents and grandparents — well, many of them — are weary about having their teens outside at any time. So far in 2023, in addition to Sparrow and Moreland in Beaver County, there have been three other teens between the ages of 13 and 15 that were killed in Allegheny County, along with a 15-year-old, Damien Jackson, who was shot in New Castle at a graduation party, and later died at a hospital in Pittsburgh.
The three teens between ages 13 and 15 who died in Allegheny County in 2023 were: Chase Jones, 13 (shot in Clairton); Tre’Sean Jackson, 15 (shot in Allentown); and Derrick Harris, 15 (shot in front of Oliver Citywide Academy in Marshall-Shadeland). All six aforementioned teens who were killed were Black.
Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier pleaded with the Aliquippa community to help them find the person or persons responsible for Dahvea Sparrow’s murder. Dahvea Sparrow’s mother, Nicole, also pleaded with the public, those who knew Dahvea, those who may have been at the house party with Dahvea right before he was killed, to come forward with information. Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker demanded answers.
“Bring closure,” the mayor said, hoping that the community would give police the information needed to make an arrest. “If you know something, say something. Quit sitting around harboring people that don’t have the right to be around here. This is our community. You got 10,000 people here and 1,000 people gon’ change how we are? No. No. No.”
Walker, who knew Dahvea Sparrow personally, said news of his death was “hopes and dreams shattered.” He added: “Everybody in the city knew Dahvea. That kid would smile and light up a room. The coward that did this and whoever saw it, you need to come forward. This ain’t L.A., this is lovely Aliquippa.”
Nicole Sparrow, Dahvea’s mother, said that she wants justice.
She added: “I can’t live here knowing somebody walking around took my child from me.”
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