Anthony Alexander Jr. Wiki – Bio
Anthony Alexander Jr. was to receive a citizen’s award in March from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. On Sunday, he was shot inside a Drexel Hill apartment, according to police. At 17, Anthony Alexander Jr. was weeks away from being honored as a hero, a brave young man who rescued three children from the icy waters of a pond and brought them to safety last February. So the Congressional Medal of Honor Society prepared to celebrate it at a ceremony in March. But on Sunday, Alexander was shot dead in a Drexel Hill apartment when police say another teenager who was playing with a Glock accidentally shot him in the face.
Diamire Hickman, 16, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in Alexander’s death, a loss that has left the teen’s family in shock. He was a beautiful boy, and this is still not real to me,” Alexander’s stepmother, Ava, said Tuesday. “He saw the good in everyone, and would always come to someone’s defense. Alexander and Hickman were among a group of teenagers gathered at an apartment Sunday on Marshall Road in Drexel Hill, according to Hickman’s arrest probable cause affidavit. Officers responding to reports of the shooting found Alexander sitting on a sofa in the apartment, shot in the face. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Age
Anthony Alexander Jr. was 17 years old.
Anthony Alexander Jr., once hailed as hero, was killed by accidental gunshot, police say
Investigators tracked down several other teens who had been in the apartment at the time, who told them Hickman fired the gun and fled, according to the affidavit. Neighborhood watch footage showed Hickman jumping over a fence near the apartment, holding a handgun. Hickman turned himself in to police in Upper Darby on Monday and agreed to an interview, according to the affidavit. She told investigators the teens had been Instagramming each other live in the apartment while “passing” two guns.
While she was holding the Glock, Hickman said, she “put her hand on the trigger a little bit,” causing the gun to go off and shoot Alexander, according to the affidavit. She then fled the apartment with the other teens. Hickman remained in custody Tuesday, in lieu of $75,000 bail. There was no indication that she had retained a lawyer. Alexander’s family, meanwhile, is reeling. The Academy Park High School junior loved soccer, basketball and karate, they said. After high school, he hoped to enlist in the Marine Corps, following his older stepsister, his stepmother said.
The past few weeks have been a blur of activity for the family as they prepared for a trip to Washington. On March 25, Alexander was to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s Young Hero Award, an accolade given to youth under the age of 17 for showing “courage in dire straits. Alexander had been hanging out with friends at Collingdale Park this past Presidents Day when three children walking on a frozen pond fell through the ice. The teenager attempted to use a log to carry the children to safety, but when that failed, he jumped into the icy waters to grab them. They really need help,” he said at the time. “I wasn’t going to sit there and let them drown like that.”
With the help of a responding police officer, Alexander was able to rescue all of the children without injury. For his actions, he received a commendation from the mayor of Collingdale and, eventually, a national award nomination. US Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat whose district includes Drexel Hill, honored Alexander in the House of Representatives in May, saying the teen’s “quick thinking and selfless action” averted tragedy. Alexander had looked forward to the trip to Washington in March, his family said and was looking forward to meeting the Medal of Honor recipients who would have hung the medal around his neck during the ceremony. But that honor was not to be.We have to do something about gun violence,” Ava Alexander said, choking back tears, “because we can’t afford to keep losing our teens.”
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