When Amir Khalid Parks was little, he learned how to do the Harlem Shake, but he was too shy to perform the dance in front of anyone.
“We’d say, ‘Mir Mir, let me see the Harlem Shake,’ and he would laugh and say no, but if you told him you were going to give him a dollar, he’d start doing it,” said Amir’s aunt Bria with a laugh. “He was so chunky when he was little, and we’d be like, ‘Go Mir Mir!’”
Amir was born into a close-knit family in Philadelphia on March 4, 1998 to mother Sherell Parks and Ronald Fletcher, who was a father figure to Amir. Bria was eight years old when he was born, and so she got to “do auntie things” with Amir that she didn’t get to do with Andre, her first nephew, who was ecstatic about being a new big brother.
Amir and Andre were three years apart and did everything together, until they were joined by two younger brothers, making them an inseparable group of four who always looked out for each other.
Amir became a father himself in March 2020, but he didn’t have the opportunity to raise his daughter, Amyrah, with the years of love and affection he received. Amir was fatally shot on Aug. 26, 2020 around Cobbs Creek. He was 22 years old.
No arrests have been made, and his family—which includes his siblings as well as many aunts, uncles and cousins—are left wondering how to move forward without him.
“It’s almost like being in a beautifully bright room, and someone turns out the light,” Bria said. “They stole our light.”
Amir was a good student. At Samuel Fels High School, he won over the hearts of his teachers who saw his potential. In 2015, he was selected for the Philadelphia Futures program, which helps first-generation-to-college students with the tools they need to succeed in college.
He aimed to be the best provider possible to his daughter. He moved to Norristown with his child’s mother, and he had recently started working at a new job.
Amir’s family wants him to be remembered for his humor and his spirit, and for his loving, caring nature.
“It really destroyed all of us,” Bria said. “It was the last thing we would have expected to happen to Amir. He’s the type of person where if you met him, you’d love him.”
Anyone with information on Amir’s homicide is asked to contact Upper Darby Police at 610-734-7693.
