2 men sentenced in fatal 2025 shooting at Detroit's Skinner Playfield

Two men have been sentenced in connection with a 2025 shooting at Detroit's Skinner Playfield that killed two people, including a 4-year-old boy, court records show.

A judge sentenced Brandon Ware on Friday to 28 to 60 years in prison for two counts of second-degree murder and two years for felony firearm in the June 2025 incident, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.

On Nov. 6, William McKinley Wheeler was sentenced to 16 to 40 years for two counts of second-degree murder and two years for felony firearm, the prosecutor's office said.

The shooting happened during the evening of June 27, 2025, at the playfield in the area of Morang Avenue and Duchess Street near Denby High School, police said. According to Wayne County prosecutors, the incident stemmed from an earlier altercation on a bus, when a man grabbed Ware's ski mask off his head. 

Authorities say Ware got off the bus on Riad Street and then rode in a truck driven by Wheeler. The two traveled to Duchess Street, where Ware fired at people in the playfield that he thought were previously involved in the bus altercation. They then left the scene.

Both Ware and Wheeler were arrested five days after the shooting.

Samir Josiah Grubbs, 4, and Davlyon Shalmonson-Bey, 18, were killed in the incident, and a 17-year-old individual was injured. Grubbs was at the playfield with his mother and four siblings, according to authorities, who added that Shalmonson-Bey was unarmed.

Note: The attached video first aired on Aug. 30, 2025.