On June 9, a 20-year-old from Springfield was killed in his vehicle.
Springfield police and paramedics responded to a report of a shooting on the 11000 block of Brookway Drive At 10:35 p.m. When first responders arrived, they found Morgan Myers uncocsious. He later died at Mercy Health-Fairfield Hospital.
Police say their investigation revealed the fatal shooting happened during an arranged drug transaction.
Myers’ ‘village’ destroyed by this loss
With his death, Myers has left behind a “village” that was wrapped around him, his mother Casey Lay said.
Myers’ eight siblings have been “destroyed” by his death, Lay said. “I mean, they’re still not sleeping, they’re still crying every day. The loss that we are carrying is giant.”
“Morgan was the most generous, big hearted 20-year-old,” she said. He loved to fish, and he loved cars. He’d often go to car enthusiast meet-ups.
But his family was his whole world. And his close-knit friends had become just as big a part of the family as Myers himself.
“If anybody had trouble having a good day, he always made sure to let them know that everything was going to be fine and the world was better with them in it,” Lay said. “He always had a smile on his face, he found humor in everything, and his laugh was just so contagious.”
Two teenagers are being charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated murder in connection to the fatal shooting of Myers. They are set for a probable cause hearing on Oct. 29. That hearing in Hamilton County Juvenile Court will determine if their cases will be sent to adult court.
“I don’t think of my son as a man. To me, he’s still a kid; he hadn’t even begun to live his life. I don’t just think about my son, but I think about those two boys and they ruined their lives, over nothing,” Lay said, adding that her heart is broken for everyone involved.
“It’s just, they are never going to understand what they’ve done to us,” Lay said.
Mother calls for parents to be more vigilant
To Lay, the big issue here is gun control. But she’s not against guns themselves, she’s against kids being able to get a hold of them.
“There’s so many killings and it’s senseless. As a mom, something has to be done. It blows my mind that my son went to go meet these people that he had just met a few days prior, and they had completely other intentions and why they had those intentions I will never understand,” she said, adding that guns are not the answer.
“He was my world. I know for other people, he was just a small part of it, but he was my whole world. And these boys have no idea what they’ve done to our lives, let alone their own and their parents’. I want to bring acknowledgement to us as parents. I don’t know if we need to do better, or if we need to get more involved, I don’t know but we need to know where our kids are at and what they’re doing and what they’re getting involved in,” Lay said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: ‘He always had a smile on his face.’ Springfield Twp. mom remembers son killed in shooting
Reporting by Gillian Stawiszynski, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
