CBS3 Mysteries: Philadelphia grandmother mourning deaths of 2 grandsons killed year apart
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Philadelphia grandmother has been mourning the deaths of not just one but two grandsons. This week's CBS3 Mysteries is an unusual one. This time, we are profiling the deaths of two brothers killed on Philadelphia streets a year apart. Their grandmother is left to mourn, waiting for justice.
"It's a pain," Sonya Dixon said. "It's a devastation that never goes away."
Dixon doesn't have far to go when visiting her grandsons' graves.
Zakiyy and Kenyon Allford rest just yards from each other.
On June 19, 2017, 20-year-old Zakiyy Allford was lured outside his father's house near 54th and Market Streets.
"He received a phone call to have him come outside, and he did, and as he sat and waited for whoever it was, a gunman turned a corner," Dixon said. "He was shot 17 times."
Zakiyy died. He was 20.
"Sweetheart," Dixon said. "He was kind. Zakiyy was the kind of guy that he would give you the shirt off his back and he always had this smile on his face. So sometimes you didn't know whether he was upset or not because he always had this big Kool-Aid smile on his face."
Fifteen months later, on Sept. 28, 2018, Zakiyy's older brother Kenyon was also shot near 51st Street and Haverford Avenue.
"Came down, one street, firing," Dixon said. "Shot four people Kenyon and a young lady. Didn't make it."
As far as motive is concerned, Zakiyy Allford was a targeted hit according to his family, shot and killed over a 2015 Facebook post.
His older brother was shot and killed a year later, Kenyon Allford was caught in a drive-by shooting, where another woman was also shot and killed.
"I witnessed my boy laying there riddled with bullets," Dixon said. "It's a vision that's in my head that never goes away, never. I witnessed Kenyon laying there."
Both cases remain unsolved.
Dixon is hopeful that will change.
"Two great young men that have the potential to be something for someone," Dixon said. "I have to explain to these babies over and over why their dad is not here."
If you have information on either the 2017 homicide of Zakiyy Allford or the 2018 homicide of Kenyon Allford, call 215-686-TIPS.
