NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Two Niagara Falls families are mourning the loss of a child after two weekend shootings took the lives of 19-year-old Jayla Brown and 22-year-old Jalin Rios.
"I’m actually numb right now," Jayla’s mom, Carretha Brown, said. "You took somebody who had a life worth living."
"I thought I had been sent the wrong name," COO of the Niagara Falls Boys & Girls Club Joelle Water said. "The loss to the community here will be for a very long time."
Police say both shootings were at large parties in the early hours of July 5. Both Jaylin and Jayla died at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.
WATCH: 'Stop this violence': Family and friends mourn two killed in Niagara Falls weekend shootings
Jayla just graduated from Niagara Falls High School last year and worked to start her own business as a hairdresser. She was also the mother of a 1-year-old son, Syaire.
"She would give you every little piece of everything you would need. If you want to argue, she's going to argue with you. If you want to laugh, she's going to laugh and joke. She is her," Jayla’s sister Miché said.
"So painful, I wouldn’t wish this on no one… no one," Carretha said. "Somebody who was making a difference and would have made a difference in this world."
Rios graduated from Niagara Falls High School in 2023, but he recently returned to the district — this time, as a classroom associate at Harry F Abate Elementary School.
Along with working for the school district, for the past two and a half years, Rios worked at the Niagara Falls Boys & Girls Club. Waters tells me that she saw something special in him from the first few weeks he volunteered.
"He took the time to be with the children who didn’t necessarily fit in, who maybe had a difficult time conforming to everything going on. He made after-school super fun," Waters said.
Niagara Falls Mayor Rob Restaino says addressing this violence goes beyond policing, saying he wants to call the city's council together to discuss how they could take a more preventative approach.
"This is a more fundamental question that we have to talk about," Restaino said. "We have to talk about how we improve the network and the family circumstances so that these kinds of things stop becoming something individuals think is the right reaction."
"Stop this violence. Put these guns down. Nobody wins in the end," Carretha said.
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