INDIANAPOLIS — We're learning more about a teenage girl who was shot and killed at a block party Monday night on the east side of Indianapolis.
Sixteen-year-old Serenity Wilson died after a hail of gunfire hit the outdoor party in the 3200 block of Forest Manor Avenue, near East 34th Street and North Sherman Drive.
Her family is now sharing stories of her joyous life and a message for the gunman — or gunmen — who cut her life so short.
"It's still unreal, just the sight of just seeing her out across the street as like ... the last memory of her," said Quenton Boyd, Wilson's stepfather.
There's painful irony that a place painted "Hope" would bring such despair. The colorful mural was the backdrop of Monday's crime scene where police found Wilson's body, across from Church of Glory on Forest Manor Avenue.
Serenity had gone to the party with friends to have fun ahead of the holiday.
But fireworks that evening gave way to gunshots, injuring four people and ending Serenity's life.
"I get the call, I can't believe it," Boyd said. "I'm trying to fight through the caution tape to try to see if I can just touch my baby. Just ... hold my baby one more time."
"It's so hard," said Serenity's mother, India Wilson. "It's going to be so hard. I'm so used to hearing her saying, 'Mom.'"
"You took a beautiful soul," Boyd said.
"Yes, what a life," added Alex Self, Serenity's uncle.
At 16, Serenity was just learning to drive and just about to become a junior at Lawrence North High School. She was on the dance team, on the honor roll, always on the hearts of her mom, stepdad and uncles.
Joy was her personality and, her family says, her purpose.
"She just put the spark in everybody. She's always happy, smiling," her mother said. "She was a beautiful kid."
"I mean she could go into any room and spark a conversation with anybody, and everybody would be drawn into her," Boyd said. "I mean, she was just so special."
"It was just something that was contagious, in a good way," Self said. "Like clearly, she had an effect on a lot of people."
A village raised this young woman. She had a lot of loved ones in her life, encouraging her.
And she clearly gave life right back to them.
"I've been in her life since she was 2," Boyd said. "When I met her, she showed me how to be a better father. She helped me be a better man today. I can honestly say that about her."
Now, the entire family is stunned at this tragic loss. They also have a message for the person who pulled the trigger, who is still out there.
"We as men have to be better fathers, to show up for our children, make sure that they aren't out there with guns and things like that, because it seems like that's something that they celebrate is violence," Boyd said. "If everybody had a village or just more men around the community to just hug somebody, hold somebody, tell them that it's OK, that they don't have to be a ghetto or gangster superstar, you know, they can be, they can just be somebody positive."
They can be positive like Serenity Wilson, whose short life was much more than how it tragically ended.
"I know that's not her legacy. That's just a moment that we got to experience," Boyd said. "That doesn't define who she is."
A balloon release is set for Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Church of Glory on Forest Manor Avenue.
Community members are invited to attend, bring pink, yellow or white balloons, and help honor Serenity's life.