28-05-2025
Fairmount Park shooting: Heartbroken mother shares grief of losing her daughter in gunfire
The Brief
A mass shooting in Fairmount Park Monday night killed two people and injured nine others.
The mother of one of the victims, Amya Devlin, spoke with FOX 29 about the pain of losing her daughter to the gunfire.
PHILADELPHIA - Families are heartbroken and grieving Tuesday evening after Monday night's mass shooting in Fairmount Park. The mother of one of the victims is speaking out about the devastating turn of events.
A mother's grief
"Numb. I'm destroyed. I'm lost for words. That's my baby," Ryan Brunson struggled to explain the pain of losing her daughter, Amya Devlin, to the violence in Fairmount Park Monday night.
She is boarding a flight from Atlanta and rushing home to Philadelphia after hearing her daughter was killed in the mass shooting.
"I just want this to stop," Brunson continued. "This was a lot. This is a different kind of pain."
Amya just celebrated her birthday on April 30th and her mom says she was the type of person who would give the shirt off her back for anyone.
"23-years-old. I'm supposed to be planning so much for her and I'm planning a funeral," Brunson said.
The backstory
Chilling video being shared widely on social media has become part of the investigation into the mass shooting Monday night. Philadelphia police say it happened around 10:30 at a Memorial Day gathering on Lemon Hill Drive. Two people were killed and nine others injured, including six teenagers who are all in stable condition.
A 19-year-old woman returned to Fairmount Park Tuesday evening to retrieve her scooter. She says she lost it running from gunfire in Monday night's mass shooting.
She explained, "My emotions been crazy. Like, I lost my friend last night. I'm just real shaken up and anxious. I thought it was fireworks until I seen everybody running so I ran. I was seeing people bleeding out and stuff on the way out of here. Like it was just sickening. I don't know why they did something like that."
She asked that her face not be shown out of fear, but she says she was friends with 21-year-old Mikhail Bowers. Before he was shot, she says he was having a great time and gave her a hug.
She continued, "He was such a good person. He was a person who wouldn't hurt a fly. He took care of his family. He made his money. He did what he had to do. He was such a good person. We talked every day."
The investigation
Investigators believe there were three shooters and more than 21 shell casings were recovered. One of the guns is suspected to have been modified with a switch to allow for more rapid gunfire.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker had this to say about the violence, "This was wartime ammunition that was just opened."
Police say they were first called to the park around 8 p.m. They spoke to a large group of adults who agreed to leave the park. But, as they were clearing out, teens began blending into the hundreds of people and that is when the chaos began.
"I've directed my team to increase our posture in the park and starting this weekend, we will develop a deployment plan that puts us into the park. Not to be going after permits and that type of activity but to keep up with the intelligence," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel stated.
Big picture view
Brunson added, "I hope they do find the person and I would like to know why. What made them go into a crowd of hundreds of people and just let off? They were raised by animals or something. I don't understand it. I don't think I'll ever understand it."
