COVINGTON, Ky. — Family and friends gathered in Latonia Wednesday night to remember Amani Smith, the 14-year-old shot and killed Tuesday afternoon.
"The last words he ever said to me were 'I love you too,'" said his younger sister, Amaya Walton.
Walton said she can’t believe her big brother is gone.
“He was my best friend,” she said. “I’d do anything just for him to be here, and honestly I don’t understand why they had to take such a life from him. Nobody could ever replace him.”
She spent the day lying on her brother’s bed clutching a teddy bear her neighbors gave them.
“I kept talking to it like it was actually him,” Walton said.
Smith and his girlfriend, Miley, were shot near the intersection of 39th and Decoursey just before 3:30 p.m. Smith's family said they were walking to his grandmother's house at the time of the shooting.
“Guns don’t kill people. Stupid people with guns, kill people,” said his father, Buddy Walton.
Buddy Walton said no child should have a gun.
“Everybody knows a kid's brain ain’t developed like that. A kid does dumb stuff every day because they kids,” he said.
While Miley was also taken to the hospital, she was treated and released. She showed up to Wednesday's vigil on crutches, happy to see so many people there.
“This is my family,” she said.
Dozens of people gathered at the spot where 14-year-old Amani Smith died Tuesday. They added flowers, a sign, and released balloons in his memory. @WCPO pic.twitter.com/cFZYBsKR3o
— Jessica Hart WCPO (@JessicaHartTV) January 25, 2024
She said she already misses him.
“I’m happy I got to hold him while he took his last breath. It shouldn’t have been him. He’s only 14. He just had his birthday,” she said.
Covington Mayor Joe Meyer said he was disturbed when he heard two kids were shot, and one died.
“Gun violence and the availability of guns is a national issue and the immediate cause of the problem here is the easy access to guns by our children,” Meyer said.
He’s concerned more guns are finding their way into teenagers' hands too easily.
“Who in their right mind would ever dream that our kids should have access to guns on the level that they do, much less have the attitude that they have the right to use those guns against each other?” he said.
Meyer said it appears use of violence has become a lot more acceptable today than it ever used to be.
“The violence amongst our children and the extreme violence is more a reflection to me of some of the broader national social trends,” Meyer said.
He said it’s difficult to implement a program because of funding.
“When something happens, the police respond. We are not big enough, and we don’t have sufficient resources to put a lot of programs in place on domestic violence for example,” Meyer said.
Smith's brother, Jase Raven, said he wants teens to stay away from guns so other families won't feel their pain.
“I just feel like our family isn’t going to be the same without him but we just got to keep his spirit living on,” said Raven.
Police said on Wednesday they took a 17-year-old into custody in connection to the death. He was charged with murder and will be at Campbell County Regional Juvenile Detention Center. The teen's name will not be released due to his age, police said.
The 17-year-old was arraigned in court on Thursday, where a judge ordered they be held without a bond until a hearing to determine whether they will be indicted as an adult or as a juvenile.
