JACKSON, Miss.—La’Trice Wright’s voice quivered as she said her son’s name to a group of reporters gathered around her on Thursday, Oct. 10. For brief moments, between interviews with reporters and posing for photos with loved ones, she paused to regain her composure and wipe away the tears that streamed down her face.
It’s been a year since her son, Jackson State University senior Jaylen Burns, was shot and killed after a fight broke out at an apartment complex on the night of Oct. 15, 2023.
Still, the identity of the person who shot him that night remains unknown to the public.
Initially, witnesses told Burns’ father, Jason Burns, that his son had stepped up in an attempt to quell the altercation and was shot in the melee, the father explained during an interview with ABC 7 Chicago last October.
“He wasn’t a violent kid. He didn’t know anything about guns or fighting or gangs, you know, anything about that,” Jason Burns said at the time. “He just—I don’t know, I never felt like this before in my life.”
Months after the high-profile shooting, police arrested and then released two suspects who they said they believed were connected to Jaylen Burns’ death. A mountain of surveillance video, witness accounts and public outcry cast doubts over the validity of the arrests.
Today, the Chicago-native’s murder is unsolved and the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which now leads the investigation, continues to be mum about the case, saying only that the investigation is open and ongoing.
Burns Volunteered at Stewpot Days Before His Death
On Oct. 10, La’Trice Wright joined Jacksonians to memorialize her son in the city where he became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated’s Delta Phi Chapter at Jackson State University and studied industrial technology and engineering.
Saying Jaylen Burns’ name and recognizing his dedication to service keeps his legacy alive, she said.
“Even though Jaylen didn’t have any kids, the work that he did, the work that Alpha Phi Alpha continues to do, that’s his legacy,” she said, moments before viewing a mural commissioned in his honor.
Oct. 10, widely recognized as World Homelessness Day, was a fitting day to honor Burns, saidJavonda Stanton, the director of the Stewpot Opportunity Center, a homeless shelter and resource center in the capital city.
It was one of the last places where he volunteered with his fraternity brothers before his death.
“Me and my brothers want to come and do something for you,” Stanton recalled hearing Burns say last year when he called her inquiring about volunteer opportunities at the shelter.
As Stewpot prepared to reveal Burns’ mural, a somber yet reflective feeling stirred in the air.
His mother and friends spoke to the media and general public, sharing their memories of the young man they knew.
‘Foolish, Wreckless Gun Violence’
At least 35 organizations—including the Salvation Army and Jackson Resource Center—gathered for Stewpot’s World Homelessness Day event on the morning of Oct. 10 to share their services with the public.
Social workers from Jackson Public Schools were there to discuss their S.T.A.R.S. program, a resource for students suffering from homelessness. Others, like famed chef Nick Wallace, were on site expecting to feed over 300 of Jackson’s homeless and hungry.
But silence fell over the crowd when Caleb Haley pulled down the black veil that had been covering the mural bearing his fraternity brother’s face; ooh’s and ah’s emanated from the crowd, followed by cheers.
Jaylen Burns was now immortalized in one of the places where he humbly served others.
His mother, La’Trice Wright, cried and embraced muralist Tony Davenport.
When asked how it felt to be the artist who planned and painted the mural, Davenport said it was a bittersweet feeling. “(I have) a wide range of emotions,” he told the Mississippi Free Press following the unveiling.
“I didn’t know him but through talking to different people and what they said about him, it says a lot about a person’s character and integrity when they can be talked about and you can almost build an understanding of who they are from what people say,” he said.
Burns’ mother shared plans to also honor her son in his native Chicago, where much of his family still resides. “I want his name to be known back at home, here in Jackson and everywhere. I want his name to be known everywhere,” Wright said.
Although Burns’ face graces the mural, Javonda Stanton made it clear that the painting was not just for him but to signify the promise that gun violence extinguishes in so many communities.
“This is to honor not just Jaylen Burns but all of those that we’ve lost to senseless, foolish, wreckless gun violence. This is our cry to end it. End it now,” she said.
