Three-year-old Shaquelle Walker Jr. was a hugger. He would latch onto his younger brother "every five seconds."
Shaquelle got his own share of hugs after he was bit by a dog over Fourth of July weekend, Alexis Lewis, the boy's great aunt, said.
After getting bit in the stomach, Shaquelle promised his family he would become stronger, so no more dogs could bite him, Lewis said.
Shaquelle will never get that chance.
The boy's family is making funeral arrangements after last week's quadruple shooting on Donovan Drive where police said a hail of bullets – the same caliber of which prosecutors said were found inside a Cheektowaga apartment where two "persons of interest" live – ended Shaquelle's life and wounded three men.
Since then, Lewis said Shaquelle's little brother doesn't understand why his best friend isn't there to give him a hug. And all the family has left is the memory of the little boy's infectious smile.
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"He had these dimples. They go all the way," she said of Shaquelle, with her index fingers pointing to her cheeks.
While no one has been charged in the July 5 shooting in the Ferry Grider Homes, a related criminal case against two people who authorities have described as "persons of interest" in the shooting moved ahead in Cheektowaga Town Court on Monday.
Donovan Drive at the entrance to the Ferry Grider Homes.
Spent shell casings found at the scene of the shooting "appear to be the same type" as the live rounds of ammunition found in the apartment of one of the "persons of interest," according to Erie County prosecutors. Police executed a search warrant at an apartment on Slate Creek Drive shared by Dequan I. Richardson, 22, and Jonay B. Robinson, 25, which yielded live ammunition, a handgun, an assault rifle and cocaine, Assistant District Attorney John P. Feroleto said in court Monday.
Richardson and Robinson were subsequently charged on drug and weapons charges following the search, which prosecutors said came about based on information gleaned from the Donovan Drive investigation. A preliminary examination of casings from the shooting scene and the .223-caliber rounds found the next day in the Cheektowaga apartment showed they shared similar characteristics, Feroleto said.
After hearing testimony of Buffalo Police Crime Scene Unit Detective Ellen Nowadly, which also included the presentation of photographs taken while police executed the search warrant in the pair's Cheektowaga apartment last week, Cheektowaga Town Justice James Speyer ruled there was probable cause for the case to move forward. The matter is expected to go before an Erie County grand jury.
Speyer ordered Richardson held without bail following a felony hearing. Bail for Richardson had previously been set at $175,000. Speyer did not modify Robinson's bail, which remains at $175,000 cash or bond.
Both Richardson and Robinson have pleaded not guilty to the gun and drug charges.
Feroleto, chief of the district attorney's tactical prosecution unit, asked Speyer to remand both defendants.
He called it "not a typical firearms possession case" when asking the judge to hold both without bail. If the weapons found in the apartment are linked to the shooting, both defendants would have a greater reason to flee the jurisdiction, Feroleto said.
The spent casings and the live rounds had the same "head markings" and "primer," and were also made of the same material, Feroleto told the judge, based on a report from the Erie County Central Police Services Forensic Lab.
Ian Harrington, Robinson's defense attorney, told the judge his client is employed at a Southtowns nursing home as a certified nursing assistant.
The prosecution's evidence thus far "tends to link her codefendant to these weapons and not her," Harrington told the judge.
"As we progress through this case we’ll find out that she’s probably innocent," Harrington said after the hearing.
Robert Johnson, Richardson's defense attorney, said he is still in the process of gathering evidence in the case.
Nearly 40 rounds of ammunition were fired in the July 5 shooting, District Attorney John Flynn said last week. Shaquelle had been on life support in Oishei Children's Hospital and died from his injuries, police said Friday.
The two firearms found in the pair's apartment were a .25-caliber Titan pistol and a .223-caliber Spikes Tactical "Aris type assault rifle," according to court documents.
Neither Richardson nor Robinson had a license or permit for either of the weapons, police have alleged.
Shaquelle's family wants "justice to be done," said Faith Harper, the boy's great-grandmother, after Monday's hearing.
"I hope they’ll never be able to walk the streets again," Harper said.
