Tania Bond was waiting for a bus when Dennis Plowden Jr. spotted her as he drove by. He quickly found a place to park his car and walked up to her.
“He said, ‘Where are you going? I can give you a ride,’” Tania said.
She was skeptical and didn’t take him up on his offer, but they exchanged numbers. They played phone tag and set a few tentative dates to get together, but it never happened. Then early one morning, he called while she was getting ready for work.
Dennis, whose nickname was Nice, offered to drive her, and she agreed, even though she couldn’t quite remember what he looked like. Their first date was breakfast that day at Oak Lane Diner.
This was during the summer of 2014 when Tania was 26 and Dennis was 22, She was concerned about their age difference at first, but Dennis was “ahead of his time,” she said. He was responsible — he had a child from a previous relationship — and Tania respected his character.
So within a few months, Dennis and his beloved dog were living with Tania and her three daughters at their home in Oxford Circle.
“I loved Dennis’ heart and I loved his personality,” Tania said. “If he told you he was going to do something, he was true to his word, so he was the definition of a real man. I had been in relationships where if things get hard or bills fall behind, men up and leave. Dennis was not that guy. He’s going to stick it out and if he said, ‘I got you, we got this,’ he’ll find a way to make it happen, and he always did. Always.”
The couple eloped in New York in October 2015 and welcomed a son, Darryl, in May 2017. The future looked bright: Dennis was a few credits away from earning his high school diploma at Northeast High School’s Twilight School program. He was learning how to rehab houses and he wanted to fix up his grandmother’s house for her. They wanted to travel.
But two days after Christmas in 2017, Dennis — who was unarmed — was shot and killed by an officer with the Philadelphia Police Department. The bullet went through Dennis’ hand and struck his head.
Officer Eric Ruch Jr., who had shot and wounded another man earlier that year, was fired after killing Dennis, and the District Attorney’s Office is considering criminal charges against him. Tania has also filed a lawsuit against the city in connection with her husband’s death.
On the night of Dec. 27, 2017, Dennis headed to East Germantown to see his mother and drop off Christmas gifts because he had been sick on the holiday. Tania hoped that they could go to Applebee’s when he got home.
Something unusual happened when Dennis left the house that night — he walked out, then he turned around, came back inside, and kissed Tania and the baby. He had never done that before.
“In my mind, I sat on the couch and thought, ‘Hmm, what was that about?’ But I didn’t think too much into it,” Tania said. “When I ended up getting the phone call about Dennis having been shot, it just felt so strange. I wondered if that was God’s way of knowing that this was it for me, that it would be the last time I’d see him?”
Tragically, Dennis’ younger brother Darryl — for whom his son is named — had been a victim of homicide two years earlier. He was shot and killed on Aug. 1, 2016 in Lawncrest. He was 20 years old, and his murder is unsolved. Dennis and the rest of the family were still grieving for Darryl when Dennis was killed.
“When Darryl passed, Dennis said, ‘I’m going to be all right over here. My mom isn’t going to cry over me,'” Tania said. “But now I bear the burden of that, because I had to witness his mom crying over him and seeing what he never wanted to see.”
Dennis was born April 30, 1992 to Chinita McCoy and Dennis Plowden Sr. Darryl was born four years later and ended up being a few inches taller than Dennis. Dennis always said, “I don’t care how big he gets, I’m always going to be the big brother,” Tania said with a laugh.
Their youngest sibling, Diamond, was born on the same day as Dennis, six years apart. Dennis played a major role in Diamond’s life, encouraging her to succeed in school and giving her relationship advice.
Tania describes Dennis as “a compact guy with a big personality.”
Dennis stayed fit and he was famous for challenging people to push-ups. He played football and basketball when he was younger, and he was looking forward to introducing Darryl to sports.
He was also known for his love of Air Jordans and Moncler jackets. If Tania objected to the cost of his sneakers, he’d say he could fit into the less pricey children’s size.
A running joke in Dennis and Tania’s relationship was their age difference, with him calling her “old head” and her reminding him that when he was 10, she was 15.
One part of Tania’s burden of losing Dennis was lifted when Ruch was fired, but she hopes he will ultimately be held criminally responsible for killing Dennis. The case has been under investigation by the D.A.’s office for 2½ years.
Holidays like Christmas and Father’s Day are painful as Tania and the rest of Dennis’ loved ones try to move forward without him.
“I feel like I lost out. That was my confidant, my go-to person. In the event that I felt unsafe, he was my safe haven. Now I just feel invalidated. I feel like I lost my identity when we lost Dennis,” she said.
“This is bigger than myself. I have a mother-in-law who has no sons anymore. My son never got to know his father. He was a 6-month-old baby and now he’s 3 years old. He was robbed of a life he should have had.”
Dennis is laid to rest at Chelten Hills Cemetery.
