Kendrick High senior killed on his 18th birthday remembered at candlelight vigil

More than 100 people gathered in front of Kendrick High School Monday evening to mourn the loss of yet another youth to gun violence.

This time the victim was Javion Shorter, a Kendrick High senior who was gunned down Friday on his 18th birthday. Police said they found him suffering from gunshot wounds at the Ballard Way Apartments on Hunter Road. Shorter succumbed early Sunday to the injuries.

The Muscogee County Coroner’s Office marks Shorter’s death as the 38th homicide in Columbus this year, while police list it as the 31st. The coroner’s office does not differentiate between a homicide that police consider a murder and one it categorizes as manslaughter or a justifiable shooting.

Chief Deputy Coroner Freeman Worley said he was called to the hospital at 4:13 a.m. Sunday. Physicians had already pronounced Shorter dead, he said, and there was limited information about the case available.

“The injury went to his arm and then to his abdomen,” Worley said.

In a scenario that’s becoming far too common in Columbus, teary-eyed teens attended the candlelight vigil Monday to pay their respects. After lighting candles and reflecting on Shorter’s short life, they released balloons into the air in his memory.

At the center of the crowd stood Shorter’s parents, Tangi Shamara and Reginald “Reddog” Shorter; the father holding Javion Shorter’s 1-year-old daughter, Javia. The toddler, named after her father, played with a balloon, oblivious to the fact that her father was gone and the impact it would have on her life.

“I’m his mother, that’s my second son,” said Tangi Shorter, after thanking everyone for coming. “I love my baby. He got gunned down on his birthday. He had just turned 18.”

The mother, a manager at Walmart, said she didn’t know her son’s whereabouts the day he died, and now she wishes she hadn’t done so much fussing.

“It hurts me because when I talked to him at ICU, he responded the best he could, nodding his head, and I said, ‘Javion, happy birthday,’” she said. “I said, ‘Javion, you know we love you,’ and he nodded his head, yes. I said, ‘Javion, you know, try to fight, try to pull through.’

“My baby went through two surgeries, his blood pressure kept dropping, and now my baby is not with me,” she continued. “It hurts because it’s before the holidays. It hurts because he was someone just like me — silly, crazy, goophy. My house is now quiet because he’s not there.”

Earlier in the day, Reginald Shorter, an employee at Columbus Foundry, mourned openly on Facebook over the tragic loss of his son.

“Buying a car for my son #JavionShorter is what I had planned, not shopping for my baby's coffin,” he wrote. “I love you son from the cradle to the grave. Your legacy will live on through your only child Javia Shorter, she will be taken care of.

“Your mother Shamara Shamara and I love you,” he continued. “You are my baby whom I fathered and raised. You were my responsibility just like Javia was yours and you did a great job. At the age of 16 you manned up like I taught you. I love you #Llj.”

The parents said their son was the life of the party, and a good child. He was raising his daughter, and at the peak of his life.

“First, when school started out, he was failing two credits,” Tangi Shorter said. “My baby brought those credits up in less than two months. He was doing credit-recovery and everything else, and my baby got on track. Unfortunately, you make choices in life, and I don’t have my son.”

She said Shorter didn’t want much for his birthday. He just planned to hang out in the family’s backyard with friends, shooting basketball. He asked for hot wings with extra ranch dressing and a new shirt and jeans.

“He wasn’t gang banging or nothing like that,” his mother said. “My son was in school getting ready to graduate, at the peak of his life and was gunned down.”

She said he planned to join the military after graduating.

Tangi Shorter said the shooting occurred while her son was hanging with his girlfriend. They had gotten into an argument, the mother said. It was around 12:30 a.m., and she offered to take the girl home. She refused, and Shorter walked her to a house instead. While there, he was shot, and the girlfriend’s mother called police.

“That’s all we know,” Tangi Shorter said. “... They just left him like a piece of meat in the doggone staircase.”

She said the family believes they know who killed him.

Yanna Stinson, 20, is the mother of Shorter’s daughter. She said they dated for two years before breaking up.

“He’s my first love and he’s my child’s father,” she said Monday in an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer. “Next year would’ve made three years that we would’ve been together. We separated, but he was still in his child’s life.”

A funeral is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday at Abundant Life Full Gospel Outreach Church on 6001 Buena Vista Road in Columbus.

This story was originally published November 20, 2017 at 8:32 PM with the headline "Kendrick High senior killed on his 18th birthday remembered at candlelight vigil."