It had the feel of a community block party and 7-year-old Taylor Hayes would have been there dancing her heart out.
Thing is the event was to remember Taylor and to tell her family that their community loves them.
Someone out there is responsible for killing her while she was sitting in the back of a car.
At the core of this celebration of life, a mother who will soon have to bury her 7-year-old daughter.
Ebony Ward, Taylor’s cousin, has young children over her own.
“The little petty stuff I mean I don’t know I just feel so bad for Shanika(Taylor’s Mother). If you just stood with her for a few minutes you’d feel her heart.”
A piece of the Edmonson Village community’s heart was taken when Taylor died after she fought for her life in the hospital.
“She would say stuff that you wouldn’t even think a 7-year-old would say,” Ward said. “Taylor is very bright. When she graduated you had to see the look on her face when she got that paper in her hand saying that she was going to the second grade.”
Some of the kids dancing and smiling played with Taylor.
“Taylor didn’t get to live her life she didn’t get to see a lot of things that her mother would have wished she was here to see,” said Ward.
Her mother now has to explain to Taylor’s four siblings what happened to their older sister.
“Why you not going to be scared? You got people out here killing kids and nobody is saying nothing. At the end of the day nobody is saying nothing nobody is telling nothing,” Ward said.
Taylor’s uncle Mark Gray said it warmed his heart to see hundreds of people come out in support of the family.
“It’s not about a community it’s about a city, this what you see right here,” Gray said. “It’s sad that a tragedy like this had to happen for the whole city to come out. But it ain’t all bad as you can see we got a lot of love and support out here.”
Peace and the laughter of children after so much pain hit the Edmonson Village Neighborhood.
Shannon Craig, a community leader, came out so that other young children can see it is okay to have fun and that they can grow up some day.
“They can be doctor’s lawyers anything they want to be because they have a whole entire city behind them,” Craig said.
The driver and a passenger that were in the car when Taylor was shot are charged with gun and drug crimes.
They weren’t charged in the shooting.
Baltimore City Police found a white Mercedes they say was involved in the shooting.
Still they need your help to find the shooter.
