Jylmyra Kirkendoll was months away from graduating from Trezevant High School. He had plans to move to North Carolina after graduation and wanted to pursue a career as a chef. 

Jylmyra was walking home from school with friends on Monday, Nov. 13 when someone — who his mother Angela Kirkendoll said was retaliating against one of his friends — drove by and fired shots at the group.

“My baby was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Angela Kirkendoll said. “He was an innocent bystander.”

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Jylmyra, 17, was shot at about 3:30 p.m. near 2503 Nunnelee Ave. in Frayser and transported to Regional One Health in critical condition. He later died from his injuries.

“There’s so many mamas losing their kids to so much gun violence,” Kirkendoll said. “We’ve got to do better. The city officials got to do better. There’s something that’s got to be done so no other mother has to feel this pain.”

A few days earlier and a few miles away, Jacques Nelson was with his cousin at the Breezy Point apartment complex, also in Frayser at 2801 Raja Drive. The Central High School 9th grader had been at football practice earlier that afternoon.

An escalation happened and Jacques was shot, according to his father Jarvis Nelson.

Jacques, 15, was shot at about 5:40 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11. He was transported to Regional One Health, where he later died.

“I was just coming home from the store,” Jarvis Nelson said. “I had just opened the door. That’s when I got the phone call. I just dropped everything at the door. I slammed the door and took off.”

As for Kirkendoll’s case, a Memphis Police Department social media statement said detectives are still looking for the suspects, who fled in a gray sedan. An MPD statement in Nelson’s case said no suspect information was available.

Jarvis Nelson said his son was fun and full of life, and he loved to joke around.

“It was his dream to become an NFL player,” Jarvis Nelson said. “He loved the Tennessee Titans.”

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‘There is no structure’

Across the U.S., violence has become normalized, according to Deandre Brown, executive director of Lifeline to Success.

“Young men don’t see conflict resolution as an option anymore,” Brown said. “I never thought I’d live in a day where, when people say, ‘I want to kill him,’ they would actually mean it, and then take steps to make that happen.”

Lifeline to Success is a local nonprofit that provides re-entry services for ex-offenders. Its ambassadors go out into the community to share with other ex-offenders what the program taught them about nonviolence. 

“But what’s happening now has had so many young people that really don’t respect the authority, or the elders,” Brown said. “And I’m really trying to figure out how we can intersect ourselves into situations in a way that can effect change. And it’s just hard to figure out where we start, because the environment is an environment of chaos, and there is no structure, there’s no order.”

Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis said during a Memphis Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14, that young people are particularly influenced by the prevalence of guns through social media and other channels.

“And it’s unfortunate that in this generation of young people, there seems to be a lack of value for lives — their lives and the lives of others as well,” Davis said.

Brown said it will take the whole community working together to “quell the epidemic of gun violence.”

‘There are people that care’

Shelby County Commissioner Charlie Caswell received a text from Memphis-Shelby County Schools board member Stephanie Love during the commission’s Monday, Nov. 13, meeting. Love was letting Caswell know about Jylmyra Kirkendoll’s death.

Caswell is the founder of the Legacy Impact Community Resource Center, which his daughter now leads. A large part of the center’s work deals with ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences. 

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Through various partnerships, including with Alliance Healthcare Services and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the center provides wraparound services, mentoring, entrepreneurship programs and recreational opportunities.

But providing those services can be difficult as the city, and the organizations within it, continue to suffer from disinvestment. 

The county commission has approved funding for what Caswell called a “seven P approach” to public safety: pastors, principals, parents, police, proprietors, partners and politicians.

Starting in January, district connectors will go out into every county district to bring together stakeholders through a public safety plan that will examine root causes of criminal behavior.

“I believe some of that work will begin to have us working together more as a community with unity; that I think will send a message to these young people that there are people that care and that there are efforts that’s going forth to address what they’ve been stuck living in for years now,” Caswell said. 

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Memphis-Shelby County Schools Interim Superintendent Toni Williams addressed Kirkendoll’s and Nelson’s deaths, and others, during a Tuesday, Nov. 14, school board work session.

“We’ve lost our children to gun violence and one loss as recent as yesterday,” Williams said. “I’m going to continue to pray for the families and to pray for our children. It is imperative that we all, as a community, take a firm hold and look at the root causes of these tragedies that are impacting the lives of children.

“The healing process can be a journey. So please know that there is help available.”

Williams encouraged families to reach out to MSCS’ licensed social workers, (901) 416-8484, or a national, 24-hour crisis hotline at 988.