New Philly docuseries ‘Weight of Death’ reminds us of 3-year-old Tynirah Borum and the specter of gun violence

Tynirah Borum would have turned 12 on Tuesday.

She should be in middle school, likely sneaking peeks at TikTok, texting, and doting on her little brother — not buried in a graveyard. But when the little South Philly girl was just 3 years old, she was fatally wounded by a stray bullet while getting her hair braided on a front porch in Grays Ferry.

The pretty child, who loved singing and watching the animated series Doc McStuffins, was one of four people shot on Aug. 1, 2014; a hot, awful night on the 1500 block of South Etting Street in Grays Ferry, following an argument that turned deadly.

Her killing shook this already hardened city to its core. I remember reading the news reports and feeling sick. Former Mayor Michael Nutter was so upset that he went to Tynirah’s mother’s home and apologized in person for what happened.

All these years later, there are those who still carry with them the pain from what transpired. The last time I thought of Tynirah was while visiting her former South Philly neighborhood in November and noticing her name painted on a wall above a community garden not far from where the carnage happened.

“I remember [the day Tynirah was shot] like it was yesterday,” said South Philly community activist Anton Moore, who retells her story in part two of his docuseries, Weight of Death, which he recently released. “We were holding our annual Peace Week initiative. We had a stop-the-violence basketball game that night. Everything went good, different neighborhoods came out,” he told me on Monday. “So I’m going home and getting ready and then I get a text [saying] a 3-year-old was killed down the street from where we had the game at.”

He made the film to educate would-be shooters that the beefs that spill over into violence can cause irreparable harm.

Moore, who spent years making the film, said, “That baby is gone. That baby will never see this side of Earth again because y’all want to beef.”

And it’s usually over petty stuff.

Brandon Ruffin, who was arrested after Tynirah was killed, plead guilty on the first day of his 2016 trial and was sentenced to 40 to 80 years in the gang-related killing. He was 24. Accomplice Douglas Woods is serving a 17 to 34-year prison sentence.

Moore, the founder of Unity in the Community, initially reached out to me on Dec. 23 about viewing the latest installment of Weight of Death, which can be seen on YouTube.

I was feeling festive and knew it would be dark.

Once the holidays were over and I made the time to watch it, I was glad to see he had chosen to spotlight Tynirah. Homicide has become the leading cause of death for kids in the United States. Guns kill more children than diseases such as cancer.

Last year alone, 217 children under the age of 18 were shot in Philadelphia; 30 died, according to the City Controller’s Office. When it happens, there are tears, candlelight vigils, and demands for better policing and such. Then, as a city, we move on.

But this time around, “we’re going to make y’all remember,” Moore told me.

After watching Tynirah’s parents and others interviewed in the film, it will be hard to ever forget what happened.

In one scene, funeral director Escamillio Jones describes becoming enraged when he saw Tynirah’s body. “It almost seemed like [the shooting] was intentional. We know it wasn’t, but it was almost dead center to her chest. And I’m thinking, ‘Wow, you know, she didn’t have a chance.’ She didn’t have a chance at survival.”

All because some neighborhood young men had beef with each other and were too stupid to stop themselves from ruining so many lives — including their own.

How many more babies are going to get shot like Tynirah was before something changes?

There are too many illegal weapons on the street. I recently saw a video taken in Philadelphia showing a young man reaching into his pants to pull out an assault rifle and point it at a group of people who scattered — but not before one of them brandished his own weapon. No one was shot on the video, but the moment is terrifying and disturbing.

“Everywhere I go, you hear people talking about that,” Moore told me when I asked him about the footage. “It’s horrifying seeing those young guys pull out those guns.”

America needs meaningful gun reform and strict enforcement of current laws. No young person should be walking around with assault rifles.

Also, we need to figure out a way to reach would-be shooters before they start causing mayhem. It’s easy to say it’s the parents’ job, but clearly, a whole lot of mothers and fathers aren’t up to the task and are failing miserably. Schools, churches, community nonprofits, and government need to step into the gap. We need the incorrigible among us kept off the streets so that little girls like Tynirah can sit outside on a summer night without ending up in the morgue.

When Mayor Nutter visited Tynirah’s house after the shooting, her mother gave him a picture of the 3-year-old. He says during the film that he carries that picture in his wallet as a reminder. A reminder of the toll gun violence takes, and how far we still have to go as a city.

Moore’s film can be that for the rest of us.