Dayzhair "Day Day" Rucker, a 24-year-old Black / African American male from Syracuse, New York, died on August 16, 2021, from injuries he sustained in a shooting that had occurred a year earlier. The incident that ultimately led to his death was part of a violent crime spree that terrorized parts of the city.
The shooting that left Rucker paralyzed happened on August 16, 2020, at a gas station.
He was gunned down in an act of violence that was one of several shootings carried out by the same individual over a three-week period. For a year, Rucker fought the devastating injuries inflicted upon him, but ultimately succumbed to them. His death marked a tragic end to a young life and converted an attempted murder case into a homicide investigation.
The man responsible for the shooting spree was identified as Tyquan Graham. In addition to the shooting of Rucker, Graham was also responsible for the shooting deaths of Erskine Dodson on July 26, 2020, and Charles Peacock on August 4, 2020. Another shooting occurred the morning after Dodson's murder, where shots were fired into a residence, though no one was injured. Graham was arrested in September 2020.
Following Rucker's death in 2021, the initial charge of attempted murder against Graham was upgraded to a third murder charge. Despite his denials of involvement in any of the shootings, Tyquan Graham faced a jury trial for his crimes. On April 19, 2022, a jury found him guilty, and he was convicted of murder in the second degree. An appeal of the conviction was later unanimously affirmed by a panel of judges on November 17, 2023.
