Amazi Ray Joseph Aplon was a charming and intelligent three-year-old boy whose warmth and sweetness touched many hearts. Known to his family as Mazi, he had a passion for singing and dancing that brightened every room. His grandmother, Felicia Kirvin, remembered his beautiful, unforgettable smile and described him as a loving, kind, and respectful child.
A cherished son, brother, grandson, great-grandson, and great-great-grandson, Amazi found joy in simple moments, like waiting at the bus stop for his older sisters to come home from school. His family is left with memories of a little boy whose life was just beginning.
In the early hours of Sunday, October 11, 2026, that life was cut tragically short. Around 1:00 a.m., neighbors at the Oakwood Place Apartments on Wadsworth Drive in the South Oak Cliff area of Dallas heard cries for help. In the complex parking lot, they saw Amazi and his mother. After residents called 911, Dallas police officers arrived to find the young boy with a gunshot wound. The officers immediately began lifesaving measures until paramedics from Dallas Fire-Rescue arrived. Amazi was rushed to a local hospital, but his injury was too severe, and he was pronounced dead. The Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office later officially identified him.
The Dallas Police Department launched an investigation into the shooting. Detectives questioned Amazi’s mother as part of their inquiry and notified Child Protective Services, which is standard procedure in cases involving the death of a child. Investigators worked to piece together the events that led to the fatal shot, but authorities have not publicly disclosed who fired the gun or the specific circumstances surrounding how it was discharged. As of late October 2026, no charges had been announced in connection with the little boy's death.
The shooting left the Oak Cliff community in mourning and reignited residents' frustrations with gun violence. One neighbor, Mary Korede, called the death tragic and hard to speak about, issuing a plea for gun owners to "be responsible enough to put them in a safe place!" Another neighbor, Bernard William Shabad, found the death of a toddler in his neighborhood difficult to accept. "I never would have thought that it would happen like that," he said. "Yeah, real sad. They gotta pay attention to their kids." Aundra Skinner, who heard the commotion that night, expressed the shock felt by many: "I was scared that somebody shot a kid. Somebody shot a baby, so that made my heart just, ooh, bounce."
As his family searched for answers, they also had to prepare for his burial. "I'm going to miss my grandbaby," his grandmother Felicia Kirvin said. "His life was just taken away from him at such an early age. He didn't even get to enjoy his life." She said she would hold on to the memories of a little boy whose life was just beginning.
A viewing for Amazi was held on Thursday, October 22, 2026, at the Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas. His funeral service took place the following day, on Friday, October 23, followed by his burial at MT Creek Cemetery in nearby Grand Prairie. His presence will be deeply missed, but his family wrote that the light he brought to their lives will remain forever vivid in their hearts.
The investigation into the death of Amazi Aplon remains ongoing by the Dallas Police Department as of October 2026. The central questions of who fired the weapon and how the shooting occurred have not yet been answered by authorities.
