'Y'all Took My Only Son From Me': Tommie Frazier's Loved Ones Mourn Teen Killed In West Philly Shooting
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A West Philadelphia community came together Friday night to remember a young life lost from gunfire. The grieving family and friends of 18-year-old Tommie Frazier mourned at a vigil, saying he was taken from them too soon.
At a vigil at the Christy Rec Center in West Philadelphia, Frazier's heartbroken mother is still in disbelief she'll have to bury her own child.
"Right now I'm just numb," Umbrenda Barksdale said. "I know that he's gone, but my days where I still think he's here. And I get ready to call his name like he's home, 'Tommie!' But I know he's not."
Frazier was with a few other friends, all of them sitting in a car at 56th and Vine Streets and about to go to a basketball court Wednesday afternoon. That's when a gunman approached them from the street, fired several shots and killed Frazier, as well as 16-year-old Kaylin Johnson.
"I just want everyone to know my son was a good kid, everyone loved him," Barksdale said.
Fraizer was going to be a senior at Simon Gratz High School.
Only Eyewitness News was there as loved ones honored the young man's life with a balloon release.
"He was the most beautiful person you ever wanted to meet. I just don't understand what's going on with these young folks out here," Belinda Barksdale, Frazier's grandmother, said.
The vigil was as much about honoring Frazier's life as it was a call to put down the guns.
"Have a legacy of doing something positive other than killing these young Black men," Belinda Barksdale said.
"I will never be the same. Y'all took my only son from me," the victim's mother said.
Another memorial, for the 16-year-old victim, is being planned for 6 p.m. Monday at Boys Latin High School.
