Elijah Gomez.
Family and friends of murdered 15-year-old Elijah Gomez gathered inside Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church Wednesday to mourn their loss and celebrate his life, while a GoFundMe campaign was launched in his memory.
“Elijah Gomez, a freshman football player at Hamden High School was tragically murdered walking home from school less than a week after his 15th birthday. His death was completely unexpected and the family, school, and community are shocked and deeply saddened,” his obituary reads.
“Anyone who knew Elijah, knew that he was a polite, gentle young man with a passion for sports and was always a source of positivity. Elijah was born on May 3rd, 2007 in New London, Connecticut. Elijah was passionate about football, basketball, weight training, fashion, being in nature, and spending time with his friends and family. He was a generous and caring young man who was excited to become old enough to start working and pursue his goals.”
In addition to athletics, Gomez found joy in the natural world — he was returning home after school through the Farmington Canal Trail when he was killed. His obituary states: “Passionate about nature, Elijah spent time volunteering on many occasions with Gather New Haven cleaning trash and building trails at the Long Wharf, Pond Lily, and Quinnipiac Meadows Nature Preserves. He loved camping with his grandmother and especially loved being around water.”
“Elijah’s memory will forever be cherished by his parents, Jennifer Cathcart and Ramon Gomez, and his grandparents, Tambria Moore, Mike Gomez, and Jaqueline Riddle, his siblings Da’Shenik Gomez, Ramel Williams, Trunell Gomez, Clayton Hardy, and Iyend’e Gomez, in addition to many cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends.”
You can donate to the GoFundMe campaign (created by Gomez’s aunt) to support the bereaved family here as well as send flowers or notes of condolences here.
Gomez’s obituary concludes by listing the loved ones he leaves behind: “Elijah’s memory will forever be cherished by his parents, Jennifer Cathcart and Ramon Gomez, and his grandparents, Tambria Moore, Mike Gomez, and Jaqueline Riddle, his siblings Da’Shenik Gomez, Ramel Williams, Trunell Gomez, Clayton Hardy, and Iyend’e Gomez, in addition to many cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends.”
My condolences to the loved ones of the deceased.
In addition to helping the family with funeral expenses, I would like to ask the readers of the NHI and others to donate to and volunteer with or start youth programming and activities to support young people to stay safe and healthy this summer, and to have caring adult supervision, and provide fun and constructive activities to keep them productively occupied.
The more opportunities children, teens and young adults have to not be hanging around bored and unsupervised and getting into trouble, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, the less violence and crime and lives will be lost or injured.
We all can be part of the solution, and help to stop the senseless violence.