GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A number of Grand Rapids residents who live on Umatilla Street say the city should not name it after Amillier Penn, a teenager fatally shot on the stretch of road more than a year ago.
On Tuesday, the Grand Rapids City Commission held a public hearing on the commemorative designation, which would not change the mailing addresses of those living on Umatilla Street between Madison and Union Avenues, but rather be marked by a differently colored street sign.
"You guys are going to open up a can of worms you can’t close," said one resident. "If you keep naming different streets after kids who pass, that is not fair to start if you’re not going to finish."
"We don’t need a sign to validate violence," said another, adding her mother is the "oldest resident" on Umatilla. "You name the crime, we’ve seen it. We don’t want to remember that.”
On June 2, 2024, Amellier Penn was fatally shot in the southeast Grand Rapids neighborhood, though the murder case went without an arrest for nearly a year. In May of 2025, Grand Rapids police charged 17-year-old Cartiyae Pascal in the incident, arraigning him as an adult. Notably, the department received a number of tips about the shooting after its investigation was featured in an episode of All Access PD: Grand Rapids.
"It's sad that there's so much gun violence," Toni Foster said to FOX 17.
A few years ago, Foster tried to get the city to name Umatilla Street after her late mother, Mary Freeman, a longtime resident referred to as the 'Queen of the U.'
During Tuesday's commission meeting, Foster brought the commemorative signage she had made on behalf of her mother shortly after her passing. City officials approved the signs, Foster claims, but they were removed by a city worker shortly after their installation.
If anyone deserves to be remembered on Umatilla, she says, it's the Queen of the U.
"They have our condolences," Foster said about the Penn family, adding she heard the gunfire from the fatal shooting, sitting on her sister's porch. "[But] if you do it for one, it’s going to be dominoes."
The only person at the meeting who spoke in favor of designating the street as Amillier Penn Way was Corey Penn, Amillier's father.
"He’s a child of the community," Penn said. "Us as parents and adults, we have a duty to protect and uphold all the children of the community."
Penn, who has long maintained a memorial on Umatilla Street, says he hopes the commemorative designation will serve as a visual reminder of a call for change.
"The gun violence needs to stop," he said. "I'm doing the best I possibly can as a father to keep my son's name alive."
Per standard practice, the Grand Rapids City Commission did not vote after the hearing, but rather returned the topic to the community development committee, which will vote on Tuesday, July 15.
