NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Dozens of people gathered at Thurgood Marshall Middle School Saturday night to remember Jayden Taylor, a 13-year-old student who was stabbed and killed earlier this month.
"A nightmare, it's been a nightmare," Jayden's father, Lewis Taylor, said.
Taylor got the news of the Sonoma Trace stabbing and immediately traveled to Nashville from his home in Arizona. 38-year-old Mayra Garcia and their son, 13-year-old Jayden Taylor were killed. Garcia and Taylor's 16-year-old daughter Alexis is in critical condition Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Garcia and Taylor's 8-year-old daughter was unharmed.
"This has been hard on our family hard on our friends hard on everybody," Lewis Taylor said.
Those friends and family members joined others in the community in a celebration of life on Saturday, filling the Thurgood Marshall Middle School gym. Jayden Taylor was a seventh grader at the school.
"He knew a lot of people, but I didn't think he knew this much. it's just amazing," Taylor said about the turnout.
People heard from Jayden's teachers and school administrators before holding a balloon release outside of the school.
"We just have to take it one day at a time," Lewis Taylor said. "I know we got a long road ahead and it's not over."
