Just a week before final exams, classmates honored Cederrius Hastings on Monday with a red balloon release in Griffin.
Hastings, 16, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting while attending a high school graduation party Friday night.
As he was being remembered Wednesday, his accused shooters were denied bond in court, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Gemarius Oneal, 19, and Christopher Walker, 19, were charged with murder Monday.
Rozalline Coggins, Hastings’ mother, told Channel 2 she feels for the accuseds’ mothers.
“Now that’s two more kids’ mothers that are hurting the way that I’m hurting,” she said. “I don’t wish that on nobody.”
Hastings, affectionately known as “whoadie,” was the father of an 8-month-old girl. Friends and family remembered him as a giving person who wanted to play college football and one day become a chef.
Still, the memorial won’t bring Hastings back, the family told Channel 2.
“It actually doesn’t change anything because the situation is not gonna change,” Hastings’ uncle, Ramon Coggins, told Channel 2. “And it only adds to pain throughout.”
Rozalline Coggins told Channel 2 she may never get over the loss of her son.
“Nothing will give me hope,” she said, “I doubt if I’ll ever have closure.”
A visitation for Hastings is Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Burden's Funeral Home in Griffin. His funeral is noon Saturday at First Assembly of God Church in Griffin.
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