Like so many people, Darryl Albany just wanted to live life and have a good time. But as a big man with a big appetite, Darryl was a larger than average presence in the room, a handsome teddy bear with a heart of gold.
“He was an intelligent, God-fearing, all-around good person,” said his sister, Tamika Butler.
“Whenever I called about nieces, he always had the best ear, and he always gave me good advice.”
There was one time when Tamika was having some trouble with her teenage girls, who are now 19 and used to look up to him like a father figure. “If they were giving me me hard way to go, he would call and get on them. ‘You better respect my sister!’” Tamika recalled fondly. “And they go, You called uncle on us?’”
The girls may have been like his first children, but he had two daughters and a son of his own that he loved dearly—Lailah, 6, Cameroon, 13, and Mahogany, 14.
“His main focus in life family. My mom, me, our sister, his nephews, his kids, that was his focus,” Tamika said.
But he wouldn’t be able to see the kids grow up. He was gunned down on 53rd Street near Westminster Avenue in West Philly. He was 34.
“We’re still just trying to figure out where all did this come from,” Tamika said.
Darryl Darnell Amir Albany Jr. had grown up in the neighborhood and later attended University City High School. He was the youngest of his mom’s kids. “Even though he was the baby he thought, he was our big brother,” said Juanita Butler, his other sister, adding that he used the call them “baby girls.” He had another little brother on his dad’s side.
One time as a kid, he was on punishment and couldn’t go outside. So he tried sneaking out and went to jump the fence and got stuck on it, tearing up his arm. He got caught because he was bleeding everywhere and needed to go to the hospital to get stitches, Jaunita said.
After getting into some trouble as a younger man, he came home nine years ago turned his life around. He became a nursing assistant and had been working for about two years caring for the sick and elderly in their homes, which prepared him to care for an ailing uncle in the months before he passed.
To make matters worse, he was about to get a job with the city when it all happened.
But in life, he made a point to seize the day. He loved going to different restaurants and had a bunch of favorites. This man with the big appetite especially enjoyed the Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao, where waiters come by with three-foot swords loaded with different types of grilled meat until you tell them to stop.
“He was a lovable person,” Tamika said. “Anybody who came across him knew he was genuine, always there to lend a helping hand. He’d take the shirt off his back and give it to you. He’d figure out how to help and make this life better.”
It’s only been a couple months since he was killed, so the family is still reeling. Juanita urged anyone who knows anything about the crime to come forward.
“We want justice for my brother,” she said. We want justice. We want answers. If anybody knows something everything counts, every little detail helps.”
Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
A reward of up to $20,000 if available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for this murder. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS or by CLICKING HERE TO FILL OUT this form.
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