Syracuse police arrest suspect in Warner Avenue homicide, seek another
A 10-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet in the Warner Avenue shooting that killed Deron L. McGee, and police still want a second suspect.
The south side shooting that killed Deron L. McGee also left a 10-year-old boy wounded, and Syracuse police are still looking for a second suspect as the case continues to cut through one city family.
Police said Shaquan Hyppolite, 27, of Syracuse was arrested in New Jersey and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the April 8 shooting near Warner and Webster avenues. Hyppolite was taken into custody by the Jersey City Police Department and was being held in the Hudson County Correctional Facility while extradition back to Syracuse was pending.
Investigators are still searching for Divintae Toatley, 22, of Syracuse, whom police said remains a suspect in the fatal shooting. Officers were called to the area around 3 p.m. on April 8 for reports of shots fired. When they arrived, they found McGee, 39, with a gunshot wound to the chest. He was taken to Upstate University Hospital, where he later died.
Police also said a 10-year-old boy was injured in the shooting, and separate reporting said the child was grazed in the leg by a bullet. His injuries were not life-threatening. That detail has made the case especially stark for neighbors on the south side, where a midday gunfight spilled onto a child who was not the intended target.
The killing carries added pain for McGee’s family. Deron McGee Jr., McGee’s son, was shot in the head on Aug. 12, 2024, and later died at age 15. In that case, three Syracuse teens, Kieran Coffey, Quinntone Moore, Uzziah Murray and Torrin Brown were later arraigned as adults. The losses have left the family linked to two separate fatal shootings in Syracuse within less than two years.
The case comes against the backdrop of a city where homicides had been falling before this spring. Syracuse recorded 14 homicides in 2025, the fewest in more than a decade and a 56% decline from the pandemic-era peak. Even so, every new killing carries immediate weight in neighborhoods where residents still measure safety by the distance between a sound in the street and the front door.
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