‘My life. My baby.’ Family remembers the 12-year-old unintentionally shot and killed by teen neighbor while recording song

Ethan Parker was only going across the street, to a home he’d visited many times before.

His 17-year-old neighbor had invited him and his 15-year-old brother to stop by around noon on Saturday, to record a new song, police said. The brothers told their mom, who was leaving for work, that they wouldn’t be gone long.

Unbeknownst to Ethan’s parents, that young neighbor had a gun — a 9mm pistol, with the grip wrapped in rubber bands and a sticker of legendary basketball player Michael Jordan, police said.

As the teen, Marvin Playfair, played with and waved the weapon, police said, he unintentionally fired it — striking Ethan, 12, once in the chest.

Ethan’s older brother was in the bathroom when he heard the haunting sound of gunfire, and ran out to find his best friend, his “twin,” bleeding on the steps.

He rushed outside and screamed for help. Their mom’s girlfriend, Christa Jackson, ran over to help hold pressure on the child‘s wounds.

But Ethan’s injuries were severe. He was rushed from the home, on the 1500 block of East Pastorius Street in West Oak Lane, to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital. But he died within minutes.

He is the youngest person to be shot and killed in Philly this year, in what police have called a homicide.

On Monday, Ethan’s family struggled to grapple with the depths of their loss — how their loving Ethan, with the round cheeks and a silly but protective nature, could be gone so suddenly, and how Playfair, the teen they’ve known for years on the block, could be in custody, charged with his death.

“I can’t believe I have to bury my son,” Ethan’s mother, Zakia Brice, said through tears Monday. “I had three babies — and I still have three babies. But I just want him here.”

Brice said she saw Playfair‘s grandmother on Sunday after church, and they hugged.

“I didn’t really want anything more than a hug,” she said. “I can’t imagine what she’s going through, and she can’t imagine what I’m going through.”

“I just don’t understand why,” she said.

Playfair has been charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and related crimes. Police initially said the shooting happened during the filming of a music video, but Assistant District Attorney Robert Wainwright said the boys were recording music, not a video.

Investigators found posts on Instagram of Playfair posing with a gun that mirrored the one recovered at the scene, Wainwright said, and the teen had a history of pointing guns at other people.

And while the shooting is believed to be unintentional, Playfair’s history of pointing guns at others and authorities’ belief that he knew the gun was loaded was reckless, criminally negligent, and directly led to Ethan’s death, said Wainwright.

“If you point a gun at somebody and you pull the hammer back or you pull the trigger ... and the gun goes off … you’re responsible for that murder, and that it is in fact a murder,” he said.

Ethan David Israel Parker was born June 9, 2012, and spent most of his life living on East Pastorius Street in Germantown — the same block where his mother and grandmothers lived before him. He was raised in a blended family, and was loved by a host of siblings, step-parents, and dozens of extended relatives.

He was a seventh grader at Anna B. Day Middle School in East Germantown and played football and basketball, his parents said.

His father, Syiee Parker, said his son was a protector. Parker chuckled as he remembered the first time Ethan met his now-wife, Brandy Honore-Parker, about nine years ago. Ethan, he said, was 4, dressed in footy pajamas, and wanted to know whether Honore-Parker really liked his dad.

“Are you gonna marry my dad? Are you really sure? Do you really like him?” Honore-Parker recalled him asking.

“He was my little guardian,” Parker said.

Ethan’s parents had a host of loving nicknames for him: E-Dip, a nod to his initials; Snuffaluffagus; Papa Smurf.

“My life. My baby,” Brice said.

Brice said her son didn’t play with guns or listen to drill rap — the subgenre of hip hop that has grown popular in the city in recent years, which some say has glorified violence and guns. He was a gentle child who was invited to hang out with a neighbor, she said, and if he had known guns would be involved, she believes her sons would not have gone over. Had she known, she said, she certainly would not have let them.

She was left on Monday to try comfort her other children, who are scarred by the scenes of their brother’s final moments, and reflect on the best parts of his too-short life.

Brice said Thanksgiving was Ethan’s favorite holiday. Sweet potato pie and macaroni and cheese filled his plate each holiday, she said. He had even taught his grandfather how to cook mac and cheese just the way he liked it — extra cheesy, a little crispy on the top.

Ethan had just started going through puberty, she said. His voice was getting deeper, he was growing taller, and he was shedding his baby weight — something kids in school had teased him for through childhood, she said. His mother lovingly told him that it was time to shave the tiny dark hairs sprouting on his upper lip, she said.

He never got the chance.

Ethan’s killing comes as gun violence across the city has fallen dramatically over the last year. As of Monday, 74 people had been killed in homicides so far this year — a more than 60% drop compared to the same time in 2021, at the height of Philadelphia’s violence crisis.

But just one shooting has a devastating, far-reaching impact. Ethan is among more than 40 children shot in the city this year, including kids shot unintentionally by mishandled or misfired guns. Last week, a 2-year-old boy shot himself in the stomach when a handgun was left unsecured. He was hospitalized in critical condition.

Staff writer Rodrigo Torrejón contributed to this story.