Rochester, N.Y. - The message was clear. Dozens came to remember 16-year-old Raven Cooper and help a family heal.
“For people to get together and stop hurting one another,” Raven Cooper’s mom Mahogany Dodd said.
It was one week ago Sunday, Cooper was shot outside a home on Bay Street.
Cooper's mom says she saw her son 20 minutes before the incident; he was hanging out with his best friend.
Dodd says while her son was a good kid, he wasn't perfect.
“Nobody is perfect,” Dodd said. “He was a kid, he did things, all our kids do, but at the same time, he was a sweetheart in his own way.”
Dodd says Cooper struggled in school mainly because he suffered from A.D.H.D.
Cooper was a student at North S.T.A.R. - a school for at risk youth but he also had goals.
Cooper just got his work permit and was looking for a job.
He wanted to go to Job Corp and he loved to work with his hands.
In fact, Cooper was working on a project for his grandmother, fixing up old chairs she bought at a garage sale.
“Raven was actually sanding them down to paint them and make them look brand new for my mother,” Dodd said.
Dreams - a life cut short.
Something Dodd hopes other parents don't have to go through.
“Nobody wants to go through this and we shouldn't have to,” Dodd said. “A 16-year-old child should not be laid to rest right now.”
Police are still investigating the case.
If you have any information, you’re asked to call CrimeStoppers at 423-9600.
