The last time Christian Hair saw her 3-year-old son Malachi Barnes alive, it was the day before Thanksgiving and she’d just gotten off work.
He met her in the doorway with his brothers and sisters, and he hugged her “real tight,” she said.
“That day, I didn’t know I was staring at an angel,” she said.
On Wednesday evening, city officials, police officers, friends, and family members gathered at Spring Elementary School for a candlelight vigil in memory of young Barnes, who was fatally shot on Thanksgiving night on Interstate 75.
VIDEO: Vigil for Malachi Barnes at Spring Elementary School
“Malachi was full of energy, laughter,” Ms. Hair said. “Just a really joyous kid.”
He loved to watch cartoons. He used to play hide-and-seek in the cabinets. He had two sisters and three brothers and was the second youngest in his family, his mother said.
“My youngest is 10 months old, and he was her protector,” she said.
If his little sister was crawling and getting into something she shouldn’t be into, young Barnes would be the first to pick her up and bring her to their mother. He would bring her bottles, Ms. Hair said, and help with feeding her.
He was very adventurous. He liked learning. He was hyperactive.
“I had no choice but to keep up with him,” Ms. Hair said, laughing.
The day of the shooting, young Barnes was spending Thanksgiving with his father. Ms. Hair got a call late that night from her older son, telling her she needed to get to Mercy Health St.Vincent Medical Center.
Her first thought was that her youngest son had hit his head somehow. When she realized it was more serious than that, she assumed he had been in a car accident.
“When I got there and they told me the news, I was just shocked,” she said.
Questions flew through her mind: Who? How? Why?
She saw him there, in the hospital, after he died. She told him he was in a better place, that she loved him, and that she would see him again.
Now, she wants justice.
“Nobody deserves to bury their child,” she said.
Police said the shooting happened as the child’s father, Anthony Barnes, was driving with the 3-year-old and two other children northbound near Collingwood Boulevard when a vehicle pulled up and opened fire. After the shooting, Mr. Barnes drove to St. Vincent where his son later died.
A second child, 10 years old, was cut from broken glass. Mr. Barnes and the third child — a 2-year-old — were not injured.
Police believe the shooting wasn’t random, said Lt. Kevan Toney, spokesman for the Toledo Police Department. Officers are investigating whether Mr. Barnes was targeted, or if it was a case of mistaken identity and the suspects fired upon the vehicle believing someone else was inside.
That shooting was the city’s 39th homicide of 2018, equaling the total number of homicides for 2017 with a month left to go before the calendar turns to 2019. Last year’s total of 39 was the most in Toledo since 1994 when the city last saw 40 homicides in a single year. At this time last year, 37 homicides had been reported in the city, with the year’s final two occurring in December.
During the vigil Wednesday, Ray Wood, NAACP Toledo president, called upon the community to take responsibility in preventing gun violence in the city.
“We have to join hands, we have to come together as a community, we have to try to hold people accountable,” he said. “Three years old is much too young to lose your life this way.”
Any tips that help police solve this case could be eligible for a reward, Lieutenant Toney said. The monetary amount given to tipsters is determined on a case-by-case basis by the Crime Stoppers board and is based on how beneficial the information was to detectives, priority of the case, and amount of funds available.
“We’re still working [the case],” Lieutenant Toney said. “We just wanted to remind the public there is a monetary cash award available for information.”
Crime Stoppers can be reached at 419-255-1111.
First Published November 29, 2018, 1:15 a.m.
