His family and the Philadelphia Eagles were what Shawn Rankins loved the most, his mother Shawna said.
“Shawn’s main goal was to take care of me and my mom and to show his siblings a different path than what he took,” she said.
He had made mistakes in the past. Starting in his teenage years, Shawn had been in and out of the system, but it looked like he was finally on the right track. He was staying in Southwest Philly — far from his old stomping grounds in Kensington — working at McDonald’s, and putting his energy into studying for his GED and learning more about his Islamic faith.
But when Shawna and her mother ran into him in Kensington in June, she was alarmed.
“He said, ‘Mom, what are you doing here?’ and I said, ‘No, what are you doing down here?’” Shawna said.
“When we got ready to leave, he told me he loved me. I looked at my mom in the car and said, ‘My son is gonna die in the streets.’ He was back in the same neighborhood and I was so scared because I know what’s going on out here — there are so many killings.”
Not long after that, her worst fear came true: Shawn was shot and killed June 26, 2019 in the 3200 block of Shelbourne Street by two men on bicycles. He died a short time later at Temple University Hospital.
Police made an arrest in September in connection with Shawn’s murder.
The arrest “made my heart happy,” Shawna said. “Now my main goal is to sit at my son’s grave and talk to him and let him know everything that happens.”
Shawn Elliott Rankins was born March 31, 1991 to Shawna and Elliott Jones and grew up in Kensington. He had two brothers, one sister and one stepsister, and Shawn was the oldest.
While the Eagles were his favorite team, Shawn would watch any sport, even golf, Shawna said. He also enjoyed making music under the rap name 2 Real Shizzy.
Shawn’s smile and his heart were what made him special.
“My son had a loving heart. He loved everybody, and everybody loved him. He had a million dollar smile and he was a sweet person,” Shawna said. “He had his shortcomings, but when you’re good it overrides the bad. His heart was beautiful and so was his smile.”
Since Shawn’s death, Shawna has received an outpouring of support from social media, which has brought her comfort.
“Philadelphia is not that big anymore, so I got so much peace knowing that he was really loved out here,” she said. “And I got a lot of confusion, because if he’s so loved, how could someone kill him in the neighborhood that I raised him at and that he grew up in?”
Shawn is laid to rest at the White Chapel Memorial Park in Feasterville.
