GREENWOOD — On Thursday night, family and friends of 16-year-old Temario Stokes Jr. gathered at the spot where his young life was cut short.
Thursday morning, he was shot and killed while at a bus stop near the intersection of Providence Drive and Winterwood Drive in the Summerfield Village neighborhood.
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You could feel the sadness in the air as those at the memorial came to terms with Stokes Jr. no longer being with them. The somber silence of the moment was pierced by the cries of Stokes Jr.'s mom, Tiera Ervin Montgomery.
In the hours after her son was killed, Ervin Montgomery said she came upon a horrific scene after hearing gun shots that morning.
"I ran outside and seen my son laying on the ground shot multiple times," she said. "My baby was just a beautiful person, gone too soon."
Greenwood Police Department said this shooting was targeted.
The victim and suspect were both teenagers, 16 and 18.
Those at the memorial right around those ages, got an important message from a woman says she was one of Stokes Jr.'s aunties.
"It's okay to say I'm sorry or as the young people say, my bad. It doesn't make you less than a man or a woman. It really makes you a man or a woman to walk away than to pull that trigger."
That woman, who preferred not to share her name with WRTV, went on to say Stokes Jr.'s family is going to need a lot of support in the future, especially his mom.
"She just don't need us today. This is just the beginning of her journey. She's going to need you every day, minute, second and hour."
Greenwood Police and the Clark Pleasant School Corporation will hold a news conference Friday morning, 11:00 a.m. at the Greenwood City Center.
WRTV will not name the suspect in the shooting until formal charges are filed.
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