Paul Bass Photo
Cousin Ranisa Sweat, close friend Nevaeh Kellman at evening vigil.
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Keiron Jones.
Keiron Jones, a Hillhouse High School junior who was acing his classes and seemed bound for college, died Monday from injuries suffered in a shooting.
The shooting occurred shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday in a parking lot on Orchard Place, between Orchard Street and Charles Place, in the Florence Virtue Homes complex behind the Reginald Mayo Early Childhood School.
Police found Jones shot in the stomach, inside a Volvo in the parking lot. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital for what were at first considered non-life-threatening injuries. But he succumbed to the injuries Monday.
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Keiron Jones, pictured at center at Hillhouse.
He was 17 years old.
The news devastated his family and friends, and his classmates and teachers at Hillhouse, where he was known as a focused and polite student.
“Today the building was heavy,” said Hillhouse’s staff community care coordinator, Darrell Brown.
Brown said Jones was “a focused student” who was “going to go places.” He worked hard on his classes: He had a 98 average in his pre-AP chemistry class, along with one B and all the rest As in his most recent marking period.
“He was a great, mild-mannnered kid. Never disrespectful. He responded to adults appropriately,” Brown said. “His journey was cut short; it just hurts when you see someone doing well.”
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Keiron Jones, at left, participating in a 2020 UNITE HERE election rally in Philadelphia. Barbara Vereen is at right.
His death also surprised people in law enforcement and those who work with at-risk kids; Jones wasn’t on their radar. “He wasn’t a kid that was known to be in trouble,” police said.
“He was a great kid,” said Barbara Vereen, a Newhallville activist and organizer with Yale’s UNITE HERE unions. She said Jones, whose sister has a union job at the university, participated in UNITE HERE’s “Yale Respect New Haven” community canvass and attended rallies.
The school district activated a crisis team to help students at Hillhouse. “Please be assured that the Hillhouse staff cares about you and the feelings you may be experiencing at this time. Please reach out for support as we go through this difficult time,” the district wrote in a message sent to the Hillhouse community.
Paul Bass Photo
Keiron's "moms" gather before the vigil.
Monday evening, Jones’ family and friends gathered at the shooting spot and lit candles in his memory.
The group included the “five moms” who also shared in raising him: Family friends Rene Fortune, Samantha Myers-Galberth, and Estelle Dickey; real-life mom Lillian Torres; and grandmother Carmen Torres (all pictured above).
Lillian Torres drove up straight to New Haven from Alabama, where she lives and works as a nurse, upon hearing the news. (Jones lived with his father in New Haven.)
She spoke of her son’s kindness and enthusiasm, how he liked playing video games, “riding his bike,” swimming. All the “moms” spoke about how well he was doing in school.
Mom Lillian Torres speaks at vigil.
So did Nevaeh Kellman, Jones’s closest lifelong friend, who was at the hospital after he got shot. “He was a free spirit,” she said. “He was really laid back. He was always making jokes,” and he loved music. She and Torres said Jones was enrolled in a class at Yale through Hillhouse, as he focused on preparing for college.
Torres and Kellman spoke briefly at the vigil, Torres speaking of how the streets have grown more dangerous than when she grew up in New Haven and urging young people to stay off them at night.
Torres and Kellman reconnect on Orchard Street before vigil.