Jaylon Cohen was out with friends enjoying Fourth of July fireworks when he was shot in the parking lot of a Taco Bell in Bartlett.

Cohen, 17, was the youngest of 13 children. As his mother clutched an ornament during Monday night’s Season of Remembrance, the Shelby County district attorney’s annual ceremony recognizing those who lost their lives to violence, she wiped away tears as she talked about the July 3 death of her son. 

“The holidays have been rough for all of us,” Sharon Cohen said. “We miss him every single day. I had to come here tonight because my son was well-loved and not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.”

The Memphis City Council chambers at City Hall were filled during the eighth year of the annual event where Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich and her staff invite families of homicide victims together to remember those they lost.

“This is a difficult evening for everyone in this room,” Weirich told the somber crowd. “For those in our office who handle the cases. For those of you who sit here because through no fault of your own, through no action on your part, you are the family, the loved one of a homicide victim.”

Like Cynthia Watson, the mother of Christopher Jordan, who was gunned down inside his car as he left a South Memphis apartment after an altercation with another man on July 11. He was 33 and left behind 10 children.

Four months after Watson wore a teal "RIP" T-shirt to Jordan's funeral, she wore it again to the ceremony to honor her son's memory.

“He will never be forgotten,” Watson said. “That is very important and why I am here.”

As Jordan’s name was read aloud with other homicide victims of 2018, Watson took the gold ornament with a picture of her son and placed it on a wreath near a Christmas tree.

The tree bore the name of all 174 homicide victims in Memphis and Shelby County this year. However, the event wasn't only for families who lost loved ones this year, but also for those who lost family members in previous years.

Latasha Hamilton’s older sister Zeneatrice Crawford was killed on June 4, 2016, when she was stabbed more than 50 times by her boyfriend.

Raymond Clark is serving a life sentence in Atlanta for another crime, but Hamilton wants him extradited to Shelby County to face murder charges in the death of her sister.

“This is our first year coming to this event,” Hamilton said. “My mom wanted to come this year because my sister’s 43rd birthday is tomorrow and she wanted to put her name up on the tree because we are still waiting for justice.”

Hamilton said her sister left behind twins who are now 12 years old, and they wanted to come to the ceremony to honor their mother.

Weirich had a special message for the many children who sat with their family members in the audience.

“My words to you – my hope for you is that you see a community," Weirich said. "That you see a family – some of them wearing a uniform with a gun and a holster, some of them wearing a uniform of a singer, a musician – but all of us carrying a badge of justice,” Weirich said. “We come together tonight as a family in grief and we grieve with you, but for the children in the room, there can be and there must be and there will be better days.”