After two consecutive weekends marred by violence in Chattanooga, the community came together Thursday to honor one of the victims and to ask for the violence to stop.
“We’ve got to do better,” said Billy Brumlow, former pre- and after-care director at Lakeside Elementary. “This has to stop, we – not y’all – we are killing each other.”
Brumlow addressed the crowd of over 30 people who came to honor Darian Donyel Hixson, 24, on the football field at Central High School, her alma mater.
Police have declined to identify victims of the shooting, so Hixson’s name is known only because friends and family came forward.
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Remembering Darian Hixson
Police say the violence on Sunday on McCallie Avenue killed another woman, 25, and a man, 34, in addition to injuring 14 others. That came one week after six people were injured by gunfire on Walnut Street in the heart of the city’s tourist district.
Hixson’s friends remembered her as a person who always had a smile on her face and joy in her heart.
Sandrea Syland, who knew Hixson and played basketball with her in high school, said that while Hixson could be stubborn at times, she always had a smile on her face.
“Extremely caring person, very loyal friend,” Syland told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “You can hardly ever catch her in a bad mood.”
Syland said Hixson, like many people in their 20s, was still trying to figure out her life, but she knew she wanted to leave a positive impact on those she met.
“She was just very big,” Syland said. “She could be there with any crowd, any dynamic group of people, so it’s just really sad to lose somebody like that.”
Hixson was one of three people who died in the Sunday shooting incident outside Mary’s Bar & Grill, 2125 McCallie Ave.
Hixson’s father, Darius Hixson, spoke to the crowd and urged them to be careful when gathering.
“We’ve got to start protecting ourselves,” Hixson said. “Make sure that we’re in the right place at the right time.”
Hixson said his daughter was just out having fun when her life abruptly ended.
“She had good examples,” Hixson said of his daughter, whose older brothers went to college. “She was going to follow in their footsteps.”
“If I could say that she was out here in the streets, getting in trouble every day, then this was bound to happen,” Hixson said to the Times Free Press. “But she wasn’t, she just went out to have fun one night.”
As the vigil progressed, people all donned in blue – Hixson’s favorite color – spoke about the joy she brought into their lives and shared stories about her while laughing through tears.
“We’ve got to have a call to action,” Reginald Clack, organizer of the event, told the crowd. “If we don’t, we’re standing here for nothing. We are meeting here because we have to have a call to action.”
Towards the end of the vigil, blue balloons were released into the sky with people shouting “forever 24.”
Activist and City Council candidate Marie Mott was present and asked that people continue to spread the love that Hixson shared when she was alive.
“There is no greater testimony to the impact that we can have,” Mott said. “In the midst of tragedy is love that has connected us, love that will keep us and love that will ensure justice for the family.”
Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy made a brief appearance at the event as well but did not speak.
“Don’t forget the beautiful energy Darian displayed during her time here,” Mott said. “That energy can only be transferred. Let’s take the best parts of Darian’s energy so she is with us forever.”
Regular gatherings
In the days after the shootings, Daniel Brown, a yoga teacher who lives on Oak Street – a block away from McCallie Avenue – said he moved to Chattanooga from the Buckhead neighborhood in Atlanta, to get away from the constant shootings.
“We moved right around the time that the Buckhead area was getting kind of dangerous,” Brown told the Times Free Press. “But it is wild that this has all picked up.”
Brown, who has lived on Oak Street since August, said that almost every weekend since, it’s common to have a large crowd flow onto his street from Mary’s Bar & Grill.
“They’ll sometimes block our driveways; sometimes the people who live here will throw our trash cans out in front, so they can’t park in front of our houses,” Brown said. “Sometimes I’m at work and I get back late, and they’ve already started parking. By the time I get off, sometimes it’ll already be loud, like bass from cars.”
On Sunday, Brown was at home and heard the commotion of the engines that could be seen on since-deleted Facebook “live” videos.
One of the videos showed dozens of people blocking traffic before a white Dodge Charger spun its wheels to create a cloud of smoke just before shots rang out. In the video, a woman could be heard desperately screaming for her cousins and her brother after saying. “They’re shooting.”
“I heard them revving up the engines, it had been happening a few times in the night,” Brown said. “So when it happened, that final time that had happened, it was like really loud, really extended, and in my head it just sounded like a car backfiring. I wasn’t expecting it to be like firearms.”
Brown said he didn’t realize there was a shooting until around 6 a.m. Sunday, when he opened his front door and saw Chattanooga police had blocked off the area with police tape.
“I was like, ‘I wonder what happened?'” Brown said. “My roommate immediately walked out, and she’s like, ‘What’s going on?’ and they (police) told her, and they showed her the videos, and they kind of explained it to her.”
Grieving the loss
The Hixson memorial was announced in a Facebook post from Six18 Restaurant & Lounge. The post said Hixson worked there.
“She is one of the three individuals who lost their life to the senseless shooting this past weekend,” the post said. “While a lot of information about what happened is unknown, what we do know is that the families of the victims are grieving the loss of their loved ones and several other people were harmed.”
Requests for comments from the restaurant were not immediately returned.
(READ MORE: Chattanooga police release age, sex of 17 victims in weekend shooting)
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.