3 Tennessee Students — 6, 10, and 16 — Killed as Innocent Bystanders in Drive-By Shootings
Three Memphis students were killed this week after separate drive-by shootings in which the victims were innocent bystanders.
The first shooting took place around 6 p.m. Sunday when 10-year-old Jadon Knox, a fourth grader at Aspire Hanley Elementary School, was killed playing outside at his friend’s home in Orange Mound.
“Jadon was the life of our family. Very, very funny. He loves to keep everyone laughing,” Jadon’s aunt, who was identified only by her first name Twanda, told WHBQ. “This is murder. You killed him. You took his life. He was only 10. His life had not even started.”
The following day, Ashlynn Denaé Luckett, 6, and her uncle Lequan Dequez Boyd, 16, were shot inside a home in Hickory Hill. Luckett, a first-year student at Sycamore Elementary, died on Tuesday of her injuries. Boyd, a sophomore at Collierville High School, died Wednesday in the attack, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.
Luckett’s first grade teacher Deena Carter told the Commercial Appeal that she was new to the school and was adored by her classmates.
“The kids loved her,” Carter said. “She had a smile on her face every day. She was a hard worker, and she wanted to learn.”
“She will be truly missed,” she added. “She was just a ray of sunshine.”
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Boyd’s former teacher Stephanie Gonzalez remembered the teen as “very caring and protective of his friends, family and teachers he loved.”
“Lequan was one of those students that had a huge personality,” Gonzalez told the Commercial Appeal. “Even teachers that didn’t teach him knew him. He had a personality larger than life. He would dance down the hallways and always had a smile on his face.”
“I am thankful that I was able to teach him for a year,” she said. “He was a bright spot in not only mine, but also many of our lives. He was the student that you looked forward to seeing every day because he could always make you laugh.”
Police have made no arrests in the deaths of Knox, Luckett and Boyd.
“There are no arrests at this time,” Memphis Police Department spokesperson Louis C. Brownlee tells PEOPLE. “It is horrible. You hate for anybody to be shot, let alone juveniles. They are vulnerable members of our community.”
