By the time he was three days old, Elijah Dobbs-Harvey had already cheated death.
Born with neuroblastoma, a very rare cancer that forms in certain types of nerve tissue, Elijah survived a grueling surgery only to be later diagnosed with epilepsy and a severe speech impediment.
“He didn’t like it but it was part of who he was. He embraced it,” said Elijah’s older sister, Tatiyanah Dobbs. “He had a very strong support system. We had his back. We told him, ‘We love you. We know you can do it. Be the best you can be. You be your greatest self.’”
Still, Elijah’s weekly and sometimes twice-weekly seizures frustrated him, the electrical storm in his brain causing his heart to thump wildly and his muscles to mercilessly jerk and twitch. In early June, a seizure lasting more than 15 minutes sent him to the hospital.
The day he was discharged, on June 14, Elijah was shot and killed while unloading a truck for an African market in the 6500 block of Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. He was 18, a graduating senior at South Philadelphia High School waiting for his diploma to arrive. He had hoped to learn how to drive once his seizures were under control.
A couple weeks after Elijah’s death, his best friend was fatally shot on the same block. An investigation is ongoing.
After Elijah’s death, family and friends released more than 100 balloons to the sky, honoring their boy, “Juicy,” so named for his sloppy kisses when he was a baby.
“He gave the best kisses,” remembered his mother, Tonita Dobbs.
A few weeks after the ceremony, Elijah’s girlfriend toted a poster cutout of him in a tuxedo to an outdoor prom in Darby.
Elijah initially attended John Bartram High School, but, as a freshman, he was teased relentlessly for his disabilities. One day, a dozen classmates jumped him and broke his arm.
After Elijah transferred to South Philadelphia High, he tried to distance himself from special education classes, and he had no tolerance for bullies, according to his family. He would be drawn into fights, defending himself or friends who were taunted for their learning disabilities.
But for the past year, Elijah became less hardheaded and more responsible for his future, his sister said. He planned to enroll in Job Corps and he helped his elderly neighbors by taking out their trash and shoveling sidewalks, his mother said. He also showered attention on his nieces and nephews, making Pampers runs, crouching down to play in a plastic kitchen set, or walking the kids to school.
Elijah was so tight with his 3-year-old goddaughter, Nzura Dobbs, that she refused to go to sleep unless her uncle was home, which prompted him to cancel his plans more than once, recalled Tatiyanah, who is Nzura’s mother.
“She basically worshipped the ground he walked on,” Tatiyanah said.
Growing up as the youngest of four siblings (his two older brothers are Jacquai Dobbs and Ashleed Wilson), Elijah “needed someone else to baby,” Tatiyanah remembered.
Loud and strong-willed, Elijah would often fight with his sister about hogging the home’s only bathroom. When the door opened, Elijah would be in the tub — fully clothed — just to make everyone laugh.
He enjoyed fixing houses — particularly demolishing walls — and spending all-nighters playing Grand Theft Auto and NBA games on his PlayStation. Whenever he lost, he demanded an immediate rematch. Elijah readily admitted that whatever virtual basketball talent he possessed didn’t translate off-screen.
He loved math, Islam, his mom’s pepper steak and rice, and waving his hands up high in the background of his friend’s rap videos. Elijah also had a close bond with his father, Frederick Harvey, who lives in South Philadelphia.
Every summer, the family headed to Wildwood, where Elijah insisted on jumping on the most death-defying rides, such as the slingshot bungee or suspended looping rollercoaster.
“He liked the rides, the beach and the girls,” Tonita said, giggling.
Elijah’s favorite answer was “you already know.” It meant that “everything was OK in his world,” his mother said.
“Be safe,” his sister would tell Elijah.
“You already know.”
“He survived so much,” Tatiyanah said recently. “For him to be gunned down, it wasn’t right.”
Anyone with information about Elijah’s case is asked to contact Detective Vincent Parker with the Philadelphia Police Department at 215-686-3334 or 3335.
Date: 2020-06-14
Location: 6500 Woodland St, Philadelphia, PA
