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Norwood approves funding to build park in honor of slain 13-year-old
The park in honor of Tyler Lawrence will be built at Norwood Airport with the help of state funding.
The town of Norwood voted to approve building a park at a local airport in honor of 13-year-old Tyler Lawrence, who was shot to death last year while visiting his grandparents in Mattapan.
The vote was taken at a town meeting May 16. Tyler’s mother, Remy Lawrence, spoke about how much the park would mean to her and her family.
“Tyler is my only child and he was my parent’s only grandchild, so what it would mean to me to see young people happy, enjoying themselves, at a beautiful park at the Norwood Airport — I can’t tell you what it would do for me,” Lawrence said through tears.
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Tyler was killed in January 2023 while out walking in his grandparents’ neighborhood in Mattapan. Csean Skerritt, a 34-year-old man who has an extensive criminal history, is charged in Tyler’s murder.
The park will be built in a grassy area of Norwood Airport, which now has benches for people to sit and view as planes arrive and depart, John Kinney, the town’s Superintendent of Recreation, said at the meeting. The benches will remain in place once the playground is built, according to Kinney.
Norwood’s Community Preservation Committee and Board of Selectmen voted unanimously in support of the project. According to a project document, the town will allocate $213,630 to the project and receive $75,000 from the state.
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“Safety and accessibility were top of mind in the design, and the playground will feature poured-in-place surfacing and several accessible and sensory-play elements,” the document reads.
One citizen at the meeting spoke out about the playground over concerns about lead in aviation fuel. Kinney said that soil was tested at the proposed site and came back with lead levels “much, much lower than accepted by the EPA threshold.”
Lawrence told The Boston Globe last year that Tyler was “high energy” and loved playing sports and being outside. He was a student at Coakley Middle School at the time of his death.
“He loved Norwood. He had a lot of friends here who continue to navigate his loss, like we all do,” Lawrence said at the May 16 town meeting. “He was a good boy, he was a nice boy, he was kind.”
Work on the park is expected to begin this summer with hopes to finish in the fall, town selectman Matt Lane told the Globe.
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