NEW ORLEANS — Friends and family gathered tonight to honor the short life of Bernell James.
Travon Taylor played football with Bernell at Kipp Morial Middle School, describing him as the person who could always make you laugh.
“When we were on the sidelines we would always have fun,” Taylor said. “If we were winning or losing it didn’t matter.”
Bernell’s uncle echoed these same sentiments.
“He like to joke around,” Bernell’s uncle, Warren Mitchell said. “He had a pretty good smile on his face. He was a little jokester.”
Travon and Bernell’s uncle were just two of the dozens of people who came out tonight for Bernell’s vigil.
“There was a lot of people out here. And that just shows that he was loved by a lot of people,” Mitchell said.
The teen’s shooting is still under investigation, and Mitchell says for his family, not knowing what happened to his nephew, is one of the worst parts of the tragedy.
“They hurting, because they don’t know. It’s bad when they don’t know. They don’t know why my son was shot. They don’t know a reason, so on his family’s side they’re hurting,” Mitchell said.
Bernell is one of multiple teen deaths this week, all due to gun violence.
“I think something got to be done about it. The murder rate is very high, and our teenagers are out in the east,” Mitchell said.
Travon said if he could say one last thing to Bernell, it would be that he loves him.
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