Mom decries Allan Domb ad that includes video footage from the night her son was killed

The day after Terri Veracruz buried her son, she was at her home in West Philly watching the morning news when she spotted the vehicle he had been driving on the night he was fatally wounded.

She couldn’t believe her eyes. But there it was — her silver 2019 Hyundai Sonata, with its bullet-shattered windshield, on her TV screen.

It was featured in a campaign ad for former Councilmember Allan Domb, who is running for mayor. The ad included news footage about a recent bloody weekend during which five people were killed within eight hours, including a 14-year-old boy and Veracruz’s son, Terrell Aaron White.

The ad, which lasts 31 seconds, includes promises by Domb to help Philly rid itself of the scourge of gun violence. The average viewer wouldn’t have thought much of it, but for Veracruz, it was a sucker punch.

“Like, why would [Domb] do that, the day I laid him to rest?” Veracruz, 56, asked me recently through tears. “Where’s the sensitivity at?”

White, a 34-year-old long-haul truck driver, was a victim of a violent crime, but he was also someone’s son. He was a brother. A friend. A colleague. People loved him. He was more than what happened to him.

For Veracruz, the pain of losing her son was compounded by being surprised by the reminder of his final moments just one day after burying him. (The campaign hadn’t asked her for permission or warned her it would appear.)

This issue came up earlier this year, when local families of gun violence victims objected to the use of their loved ones’ memory without permission. At January’s day of service to honor Martin Luther King Jr., families got calls from friends who saw their loved one’s name printed on a T-shirt given to volunteers that listed recent homicide victims — again, without permission.

» READ MORE: Our loved ones were victims of gun violence. Don’t put their names on a T-shirt without our knowledge. | Helen Ubiñas

I reached out to Domb’s campaign office and was told that the ad was no longer airing on TV.

On the afternoon of March 4, White drove her car to go buy cigarettes but never made it home. Veracruz was unaware that anything had happened until a neighbor called to alert her that White had been shot just a few blocks away, at 60th and Sansom Streets, where he and some neighborhood friends typically gathered. Reportedly, he and 24-year-old Marquan Fox from the 100 block of South 61st Street had been sitting in Veracruz’s car when gunfire broke out. Neither man survived. “They put eight bullets in my baby,” Veracruz told me.

According to witnesses, his final words were, “Call my mom. Call my mom.”

Around the same time that White and Fox were shot, Anthony Pinkney, a 14-year-old boy who had been walking with friends, was shot and killed in the city’s Overbrook section, according to Philadelphia police. About an hour later, Samir Burton, a 19-year-old man, was shot and killed in the 3700 block of North Carlisle Street.

The Domb campaign ad takes note of this, opening with a narrator speaking over various news clips — one that shows a photo of Veracruz’s car — saying: “Another weekend of violence. Seven shootings — five dead, including a 14-year-old. Yet, as The Philadelphia Inquirer notes, ‘Among the gaggle of Democratic mayoral candidates vying to replace Kenney, only Allan Domb even noted the murders. ...’”

» READ MORE: Local anti-gun violence activist very nearly became a statistic himself | Jenice Armstrong

I asked Domb about the ad when he appeared before The Inquirer Editorial Board on March 27 via Zoom seeking the paper’s endorsement for mayor. He said he had only recently been made aware of Veracruz’s feelings about the ad, and that he “felt terrible” about it. Domb asked me for Veracruz’s number and said he wanted to reach out to her, which is something he pledged to do with all of the families of homicide victims if he’s elected.

“When I was full-time in real estate, I would make 100 phone calls a day. I’m a worker, I will reach out to every person” who has lost a loved one to gun violence, Domb said. “I’m a father and a grandfather. Nothing is worse than losing a child or a grandchild.”

Politicians say a lot of things when they run for office. But as he spoke about losing a child, it appeared as if he got a little choked up. In that moment, I sensed his humanity and that he really did care. To me, that was a much more effective selling point for Domb’s candidacy than any slick TV commercial could ever be.

His pledge to reach out to the families of homicide victims is an honorable one. Every mayoral candidate should agree to do the same, which is something Mayor Jim Kenney certainly didn’t prioritize. It won’t bring their loved ones back, but this simple gesture would go a long way toward demonstrating to the families of homicide victims that their loss matters.