Community Mourns 15-Year-Old Gunned Down in Hartford

About 100 people gathered for a vigil on Garden Street to comfort a grieving family after 15-year-old Keon Huff, Jr. was shot and killed in Hartford.

“Mother, we are sorry for your loss. But I’m going to tell you, God is still God,” Rev. Henry Brown, Mothers United Against Violence, said.

Many in the crowd were around the same age as Keon.

Not far away, police say for some reason the 15-year-old was shot in the head and killed in the hallway of an apartment building on Friday.

“Just stop all this violence. It’s not worth it. All these parents losing all their kids. It’s not worth it,” Danielle Rosa, Keon’s aunt, said.

The teen’s death marks the eighth homicide this year in the capitol city. His was the youngest in quite some time.

Hartford Police Chief James Rovella expressed his sadness and also his anger at the heroin problem here.

“It is ripping through the fabric of our families and we need everyone to help. We are complicit if we don’t stop this ourselves,” Chief James Rovella of the Hartford police said.

Many spoke about how the city and community need to work to prevent other kids from following in the same troubled path as Keon.

For his mother now is a time to mourn the loss of one of her five children. 

“He was greatly loved. I was overwhelmed with all the love,” Yolanda Ortiz, Keon’s mother, said. “I also want justice to be served. I want whoever did this to my child to get arrested.”

 Police have yet to identify a suspect or what might have led to the shooting.

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