Oakland mom heartbroken after losing 2 children to gun violence
OAKLAND, Calif. - An Oakland mother is awash in grief after first losing her stepdaughter to gun violence in a party bus shooting three years ago and now her son.
"The pain I'm feeling right now is so unbearable, I would never want this on another mother," Aisha Meredith said through tears.
In 2021, her stepdaughter Alayasia Thurston, 19, was shot and killed while riding on a party bus in East Oakland. A 16-year-old girl who was a friend of hers was also killed.
"That's been hard on all of us, but it was especially hard on her brother," Meredith said.
On July 1, Thurston's brother, 25-year-old Devonya Thurston, was shot and killed at Go Go Amigo Market at 105th Avenue and E Street in East Oakland.
"I got there as fast as I could, and I fell to the ground," she said.
Two teens killed, multiple victims shot on party bus in Oakland
What was supposed to be a celebratory event turned deadly early Tuesday morning when gunfire erupted on the highway and multiple victims on a party bus in Oakland were shot.
Meredith is struggling through her pain once again after losing her son. He was her rock, the one she leaned on in difficult times.
"That's my heart. That's my soul. I can't believe this," she said.
Her son had just started out as a rapper. He wrote the first verse of a song called "Victim" after his sister was killed. He continued writing it after his best friend was shot dead.
Meredith is planning to bury the siblings together.
"This is not what I'm supposed to be doing. He's supposed to be burying me," she said.
Days before he was killed, he texted her.
"Mama, a lot of people are dying around me," he wrote her. "Mama, I'm scared. I don't want to be on no T-shirt, mama."
Authorities have not reported any arrests in her son's killing.
As for the party bus shooting, investigators have said shooters opened fire in retaliation for another Oakland shooting that left two 17-year-old boys dead.
"That's all I'm seeing, is going back and forth. You take mine, I'm gonna take yours. You take mine, I'm gonna take yours. But it needs to stop," Meredith said.
She's been on a roller coaster of emotions and just wants justice.
"If anyone knows anything, please, please don't let my baby be just another number," Meredith said, crying.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan