HOUSTON – A grieving Houston family says a memorial honoring 16-year-old shooting victim Jadiel “Jay” Rodriguez has suddenly disappeared, just hours after loved ones gathered for a candlelight vigil.
Rodriguez, a student at Dobie High School, was shot and killed two weeks ago in a drive-by shooting in a park in the Durham Park Neighborhood near Blackhawk Ridge Lane and Sunny Terrace, according to Houston police. Another teen was also injured. Jay’s family says they created the memorial at the park because it was a place where he grew up making memories and where they wanted to keep his spirit present.
But on Friday morning, the family returned and found the tribute gone.
“We don’t see it, we don’t have it anymore,” said Jay’s uncle, Victor Perdomo. “Someone came and without our permission, they took it away from us.”
Perdomo says the family held a candlelight vigil at the memorial the night before. “We were not given a notice,” he said. “We had a candle light vigil the night before. The next morning when we go there to see the candle to remember Jadiel, it was not there.”
The memorial included flowers, candles and a custom nameplate made in Jay’s honor. Perdomo says neighbors reported seeing a man in a white truck pull up to the memorial and drive away with the items. He says maintenance told him their crews did not remove it.
KPRC 2 reached out to the community association manager for the Durham Park HOA, who said the company is an offsite management group and she was not aware of a memorial or a removal.
For the family, the missing items represent far more than decorations, especially the welded metal nameplate created by Jay’s friends.
“Jadiel wanted to be a welder,” Perdomo said. “There was something that he wanted to be in the future… he was planning to go to trade school to be a welder and his friend got together and they welded his name. That’s what we want back.”
Now, the family is pleading for whoever took the memorial to return it.
“How can you sleep at night knowing what you did?” Perdomo said. “Give us the stuff back. Give it back.”
The family is asking anyone who knows what happened to the memorial to come forward. At this time, no arrests have been made in Rodriguez’s murder. Anyone with information is urged to contact Houston police or Crime Stoppers.