Syracuse man killed in south side shooting, 10-year-old grazed by bullet

A south side shooting that killed 39-year-old Deron L. McGee and grazed a 10-year-old boy landed hard in Syracuse, where residents have watched isolated bursts of gunfire puncture an overall drop in homicides but still leave whole blocks on edge.

Police said officers were called to Warner Avenue and Webster Avenue around 3:02 p.m. on April 8 after reports of shots fired. McGee was found with a gunshot wound to the upper body and taken to Upstate University Hospital, where he later died. The child’s injury was described as a graze wound to the leg and was said to be non-life-threatening. No arrests had been announced and no suspect description had been released as investigators worked the scene.

The response zone drew in more than patrol officers. Members of the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office were inside the area as evidence technicians marked spent shell casings, underscoring how quickly a neighborhood block can turn into a homicide investigation. Syracuse police also were dealing with other violent calls later that day, including a stabbing on Croly Avenue and another shooting victim at Upstate University Hospital, a reminder that the city’s violence problem often shows up in clusters rather than in isolation.

For many on the south side, the shooting fit a grim pattern that has been hard to shake. Community leader Mary Nelson said the violence reflected a broader cycle and that real change requires more than office-based outreach, including work on street corners and stronger support for families. That perspective reflects a long-running frustration in neighborhoods where prevention efforts often arrive after gunfire has already spread fear through nearby homes, sidewalks and school routes.

The shooting also reopened wounds for the McGee family. McGee was the father of Deron McGee Jr., a Corcoran High School student killed in August 2024 at age 15. Prosecutors said the teen was an unintended target in a drive-by shooting from a stolen Hyundai Sonata on Westmoreland Avenue, and three teenagers, Quinntone Moore, Uzziah Murray and Torrin Brown, were charged as adults in that case. Trial for the three defendants was scheduled for Dec. 7.

Syracuse’s homicide count fell to 14 in 2025, the lowest in more than a decade and 56% below the pandemic-era peak. But the city remains one of the Tier I jurisdictions in New York’s GIVE gun-violence reduction program, and state data showed 44 shooting incidents involving injury through February 2026 across participating departments. City COMPSTAT reports track violence week by week across the North, Southwest and Southeast divisions, but the south side shooting showed how statistics can improve even as specific neighborhoods continue to absorb the human cost of gunfire.