Jaysun Dumon Burns, also reported in some news coverage as Jayson Burns, was a 21-year-old Black/African American male from Sharon, Pennsylvania, whose life ended suddenly on April 1, 2023, after violence broke out in Farrell. He was born in Sharon on February 13, 2002, attended Farrell and Sharon schools, played football at Sharon High School, worked as a prep cook in Mercer County and Myrtle Beach, and was remembered by family as “Jay Burnzy,” someone with an infectious smile, a love of
music, and a passion for rapping.
The shooting unfolded in the early morning hours along Roemer Avenue in Farrell. Pennsylvania State Police said Farrell officers were called to 802 Roemer Boulevard at about 4:37 a.m. for a disturbance. By the time police were working the scene, Burns had already been taken by others to a local hospital with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at UPMC Farrell Hospital. Investigators later said Burns had been involved in a physical altercation with three other males along the roadway before he was shot.
Police identified Darrell Daurice Harrison Jr., then 27, from Youngstown, Ohio, as the suspect. According to police, Harrison shot Burns during the altercation and drove away before officers arrived. Authorities initially considered him armed and dangerous, and a homicide case quickly became a fugitive search. The day after the shooting, Harrison was found far from Pennsylvania during a traffic stop in Nebraska, where the Seward County Sheriff's Office arrested him and held him at the Seward County Detention Center pending extradition back to Pennsylvania.
Harrison was charged with homicide and first-degree murder after Burns' death. Early court reporting said the first-degree murder charge was held for court after witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing, and later reporting said Harrison remained in the Mercer County Jail while the defense sought and received approval for a publicly funded investigator. The case moved toward trial in Mercer County with Harrison accused of killing Burns outside a Farrell bar or residence area connected to the Roemer Avenue disturbance.
By July 2024, the case had reached trial, and reporting from the proceedings said prosecutors presented the case against Harrison in connection with the 2023 shooting death of Burns. A report from the verdict said a jury returned a guilty verdict on third-degree murder rather than first-degree murder. Later sentencing coverage reported that Darrell Harrison Jr. was sentenced to 16 to 40 years in prison for the shooting death of 21-year-old Jayson Burns, of Sharon, and described the conviction as third-degree murder, a first-degree felony.
