CHARLOTTE — A family is mourning the loss of a 4-year-old boy who was shot and killed in his bed on Sept. 17 during a car theft in southwest Charlotte.
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Nicole Johnson and Shakayla Gregory said their typical walk from their apartments to the nearby playground will be filled with a different emotion because the child usually with them was taken too soon.
Johnson’s great nephew and Gregory’s godson, Jayce Edwards, was asleep in his bed on Cigar Court, while just outside his window, police say multiple men were stealing a car.
All of a sudden, police say at least one of those men pointed a gun at the home Jayce was in and pulled the trigger and killed him.
“People say with time it gets better. It’s been a week and it’s getting harder for me because, again, he would be with me today,” Gregory told Channel 9’s Eli Brand. “When I look at his little brother I’m always thinking, I get up and I think Jayce, and I’m like, he’s not here. I have to keep reminding myself that.”
Both Gregory and Johnson were in bed when they got the early-morning call from family members telling them Jayce had been shot. At first they couldn’t believe it, but they managed to get to him, just as he took his last breath.
“I am genuinely heartbroken,” Gregory said. “To be frank, I’m angry because he didn’t have a chance to no fault of his own.”
They say his joy still lives on in pictures — photos of Jayce’s smile and memories of his ability to make others do the same.
“The overlook here is one of his favorite places to go, he calls it the big park. He watches the planes take off, and he was just an amazing, amazing kid,” Johnson said. “You see kids all the time playing but he was different. He was something else.”
His relatives say they will make sure Jayce’s joy lives on and makes a difference moving forward — a mission for the little man they loved taken too soon.
Four men were arrested and charged with murder in Jayce’s death.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help cover relocation expenses and to support Jayce’s grandmother as she continues to care for his three brothers.
VIDEO: ‘Over a stolen car’: 4 charged after child’s killing in southwest Charlotte
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