Days before it happened, and just before his mother’s birthday, he dyed his hair red to match hers.

He aspired to be a rapper, and he played point guard for F.L. Schlagle High School in Kansas City, Kansas. A middle school poem combined what he loved: “(b)ig white building/beautiful small trees .… I walked up stairs … /holding the big bright round ball …”

Taveon Donte' Brooks, 15, was with with four other teens in a car at 2:45 a.m. in northwest Kansas City, when someone shot at them. Taveon was killed; the other teens survived.

Deep, steady beats pulse in the background as he enthusiastically raps and dances to his latest hit, “Heavy Night,” which has more than 21,000 views on YouTube.

His 4,235 followers on Instagram knew him as “Fat Daddy” and “Heavy Baby.” He spent a lot of time creating music videos with his friends. Outside the music realm, he was a brother and a father of three children.

Raydale Hill, 17, was shot outside a convenience store on West Grand Avenue in Oakland, California, on Sept. 13, 2018, at 12:17 a.m. He died at a hospital the same day.

Dope Boy Gang: That was the name of his rap group. It was a start for the aspiring hip-hop artist. A photograph showed him in a recording studio with a microphone close to his lips.

He was a loving uncle to his young nephew and a “natural leader.” His twin sister remembers his troubled upbringing: “He did the best that he could.”

Elijah Foster, 18, was fatally shot on Feb 5, 2019, in Omaha, Nebraska. Bullets from the scene shattered windows and hit the side of a woman’s home. Foster was found dead at the corner of 47th and Redman Avenue.

He was a Texas boy. You could see it in his red starred-and-striped American Eagle shirt. You could see when he showed his hogs in stock shows.

His skills varied from taekwondo to agriculture, music and robotics — the makings of a modern Renaissance man. Supporting him was his big family, who had recently lost the family patriarch, the namesake of both him and his father. A name passed down with love.

On April 30, 2018, in Christine, Texas, Vincent Valero III, 17, was accidentally shot by his father who didn’t know the 45-caliber handgun was loaded as he worked on it at the kitchen table.

Some called her Eliza. She adored singing and playing the violin. An artist, she sketched portraits and memories, her brother said.

“She never cared what anyone thought of her,” said family friend Elsa Palmer-Oden. “She wasn't [worried] about being ‘popular.’ She didn't put up with being criticized for anything. A strong girl!” Her strength helped her persevere through her mother’s death five years earlier.

On December 10, 2018, Beverly McBride, 17, was shot in the head and killed while sitting on the couch in her home in Henderson County, Texas. Her dad, whose purple hair matched her own, was also killed.

A smooth voice. Deep brown eyes. His smile, unique with gap teeth, shined wide.

He started off his YouTube videos with a bombastic, “What’s up Willis Fam!” In his channel’s bio, he promised that he would “entertain and make people happy when they're sad.” In one video, he said, “I’m basically gonna be going a lot of places.”

His mother’s boyfriend, however, had other plans.

Deputies say he shot and killed Ricky Ryon Willis, 10, and his mother in Tampa, Florida, on Oct. 21, 2018, during an argument over changing the television channel. Ryon’s “America’s Got Talent” audition was scheduled for December.

In the photo, his curly dark hair falls over his forehead. His sweet dark eyes and slight smile go hand-in-hand with the “kind-hearted young man” he was said to be.  

One of eight siblings, he “always put others before himself.” Video games, boxing and singing were his passions. He belonged to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Garden City, Kansas, where he was born and raised.

Ramon Enriquez Barragan, 17, was riding in a car at 1:40 p.m. on July 14, 2018, at the U.S. Highway 50 bypass between Third Street and Campus Drive in Garden City, when shots were fired into the car by a passing vehicle. Ramon was struck. He was taken to St. Catherine’s Hospital, where he died.

He was a member of N Street Baptist Church. He loved his family, especially his sister Kaylyn. His older cousin, Pasalo Jewell, says he was a kind soul. They were both local rap artists who never got the chance to make music together.

He was trying to turn his life around. “He was just getting his first job, didn’t get the chance to drive,” Jewell said. “He’s missing so much right now. This isn’t what he wanted or expected. He was changing his life.”

On Nov. 8, 2018, Robert Spencer "ChiChi" Biggers, Jr., 18, was shot and killed at the Lake Dreamland apartment complex in Louisville, Kentucky.

A football standout, he wore the number 11 on Fridays. And the crowd roared.

He was Cedar Grove High School’s star athlete, also playing basketball and running track and field. A full scholarship as a wide receiver for Valdosta State University was just two months away.

Trevon Fareed Richardson, 18, was shot and killed outside of a DeKalb County apartment complex on May 28, 2018. The candles they made for him read, “Long live Trey.” During a two-week period in the metro Atlanta area, he was one of five teenagers 18 or younger who died, all at the end of a gun.

His family had always called him determined, and following his dreams was no exception. He’d moved to Atlanta to pursue a burgeoning hip-hop career, leaving his hometown behind. "We have something that some people don't have,” his mother later said. “His voice...his music.”

He was back in Newport News, Virginia, and visiting his grandmother’s house when his aunt stopped by. She could tell something was wrong – furniture lay overturned, the house was filled with the eerie noise of the TV’s volume turned high.

On March 16, 2018, she found her nephew, 18-year-old James Claggion, IV, in the house, dead from a gunshot wound.