Hillary will never get a chance to pursue his dreams of becoming a rapper and a Realtor and one day having a family of his own because he was fatally shot outside of his West Dayton home in September.
“He was a great person. He was dependable, he was confident, he was smart, he was trustworthy,” said his mother, Tierra Stark.
“He liked to help, and he was just lovable.”
Dayton police and leaders say there continue to be too much gun crime and violence in the community, including among young people.
“We are seeing more cases where youth are either victims or suspects in gun-related incidents,” said Dayton police Chief Kamran Afzal.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Improvements
Dayton police data show that through the end of September of this year there were four juvenile victims of criminal homicide or non-negligent manslaughter, which is down from nine victims during the same period in 2024.
Last year was an unusually deadly time for the young people of the Dayton community. Through the third quarter of 2024, there were nine homicide victims, which was the same tally as the first three quarters of 2021, 2022 and 2023 combined.
Dayton police data also indicate that there have been 35 juvenile victims of aggravated assault this year, which is a decrease of 45% from the same period in 2024. In Dayton, juveniles account for about one in eight victims of criminal homicide and one in 10 victims of violent assault.
For victims of all ages, criminal homicide numbers have barely dipped this year in Dayton, while aggravated assault numbers have fallen by about 25%, police department data show.
Gone forever
Hillary Farr, whom friends and family called “Huncho,” was a Dunbar senior who was the oldest of four siblings. He worked at Love’s Travel Stop and was trying to save up enough money to buy a vehicle.
He was respectful, kind, generous, beloved by the kids in the neighborhood and shared whatever he had, said his mother, Stark, 38.
“He was real — he supported me a lot, he was my backbone," Stark said. “He was a beautiful soul.”
Hillary loved school and hoped one day to be married with kids, ideally by his late 20s, she said.
The investigation into his death is ongoing, but Stark said her son was shot and killed outside his home after he got a text from someone. She hopes and believes investigators will be able to identify a suspect and determine what happened based on text message records.
Stark wants justice but doubts that will provide much relief from the pain of his loss.
“Every day has been hard,” Stark said. “Every day you realize that he’s really gone.”
Other community members are fed up with killings and gun violence in the Gem City. Last month, 10-year-old Princetyn Daniels made a public plea calling for an end to the violence during a memorial for her younger cousin, Legaci Deshawn Taylor. Legaci, who was shot and killed on Nicholas Road on Oct. 10, was one of the youngest homicide victims in the city this year.
“All I want to say is y’all need to stop that stupid stuff. Ain’t no way this should be going on,” Daniels said. “She was only 5 years old.”
Young guns
Nationally, firearms continue to be the leading cause of death of children between the ages of 1 and 17, says research by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
Dayton police officers have recovered more than 730 guns this year, and 66 juveniles were arrested with firearms, even though they are not legally allowed to possess the weapons, Afzal said.
“We have seen too many instances in which a moment of poor judgment or curiosity ends in tragedy,” he said.
Dayton police continue to increase patrols and focus on areas where violent crime takes place or where violent crime suspects often congregate and hang out, Afzal said.
The chief said police also continue to emphasize proactive enforcement and utilize data-driven strategies to try to reduce gun violence.
Dayton’s elected leaders also hope that a new violence interruption program that could launch next year will help reduce community bloodshed. The city had one of the highest homicide rates in the nation last year.
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