Lancaster girl, 9, slain in crossfire; dad is jailed drug kingpin

The notorious drug kingpin Kaboni Savage, imprisoned for operating a multimillion-dollar drug-trafficking gang, wanted to retaliate against the children of witnesses against him.

In his own choice words:

"Blow [a 5-year-old's] little head off."

"Smack [a 4-year-old boy] in the head with a bat."

And "pour barbecue sauce" on an FBI-protected witness' mother, son and four relatives, who were burned to death in a 2004 North Philadelphia arson that he ordered.

"I dream of killing [witnesses'] kids. Cutting their heads off," he said in conversations secretly recorded by the FBI.

Now, sitting in the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo., serving 30 years and awaiting trial in a 12-murder racketeering indictment, Savage can ponder the irony of his own vile words.

On Mother's Day, his own 9-year-old daughter, Ciara "CeCe" Savage, was fatally shot in the back about 2:30 p.m. in York, Pa., in a crossfire between two street gangs.

Four-year-old Iyana watched as the big sister she idolized was gunned down while they played with four other children on Duke Street as a Mother's Day parade approached, said their mother, Jasmine Vadell, 29, of Lancaster.

CeCe and her sister were visiting relatives in York, her mother said. "She was my daughter and my best friend."

Vadell made it clear: CeCe's death had nothing to do with her father. The talented third-grader was the polar opposite of her father, known as the King of Intimidation.

News reports showed that outraged York residents reacted to CeCe's death in much the same way that Philadelphians had in 2004 when 10-year-old Faheem Thomas-Childs was killed in a crossfire as he walked to school.

One of CeCe's alleged killers, Nigel Maitland, 19, had been declared delinquent as a juvenile in connection with a robbery and two counts of drug dealing. On Monday, he was charged with homicide, weapon possession and conspiracy.

Police are gathering evidence to arrest a second man, said Lt. Tim Utley, detective supervisor.

The shoot-out was triggered by a bar fight earlier that day in a dispute between two gangs, police said.

"CeCe wanted to be a movie star," said her mother. She loved to sing and dance, tell jokes and do impersonations.

"She'd be hilarious, imitating us dancing or talking," said Melody Leon, 25, one of Vadell's best friends. She said she "adopted" the two girls as an "aunt." And they called her "TiTi Melody."

"She was actually getting into modeling," Leon said. "Her uncle is a hair stylist and I'm a makeup artist, and we did a photo shoot with her."

"CeCe would get herself ready for school, and then get her little sister's clothes out, do her hair and give her breakfast and walk her to school," said Leon. "She was so beyond her years."

When pregnant with CeCe, Vadell moved to York to be near her mother, brother and two sisters, Vadell said.

"I didn't attend his [Savage's] trial," she added.

But she said she regularly took her daughter to visit her Philadelphia relatives, spending two weeks in the summer with her grandmother, Savage's mother, Barbara, and his sister, Kidata.

"Jasmine is not the same person she was then," Leon said, referring to her friend's relationship with Savage. "She took on responsibility, cared for her two daughters and became a certified nursing assistant. She turned her life around," she added. "She's a wonderful mother."

On Tuesday, Vadell said that she notified the prison chaplain to inform Savage of his daughter's death.

"We've not been together for nine years," she said. "I raised my daughters on my own. CeCe was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"You can't imagine how hard it is to lose your daughter on Mother's Day." *