INDIANAPOLIS — The sound of rain hitting the pavement was the only thing that could be heard as people bowed their heads in silence to remember 3-year-old Armonie Booker and 22-year-old Jaishawn Johnson Thursday.
Dozens of balloons and faces wet with tears filled a corner of part of the shopping plaza where the two were killed Monday night near Shadeland Avenue and 75th Street.
Armonie's father, Arrieon Anderson, clenched tightly to a picture of the two of them.
"The day we took this picture, he took a picture of his shoes like mine, and he said, 'Like you daddy. Like you.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, that's what I be doing, son. And he just wanted to do what I do," Anderson recalled.
One woman in the crowd was Armonie's day care teacher, Keia Gassion. She said she called him "Little Man" because he acted like a little man.
"He had the biggest and brightest personality. He walks in the room, all the kids get excited and cheer for him. He was just a big ball of joy and energy," Gassion said.
And while Armonie's mom, Nacraigia Booker, couldn't make it to Thursday's vigil as she's grieving the loss of her baby and boyfriend, she sent a message with her sister.
"I just want to tell everyone thank you for all your support. Reaching out, all the sharing on Facebook, that way, we can find whoever did this for one. For two, just for keeping my nephew's name alive because everyone who knew him knows he was sweet. He was a very sweet baby, and he didn't deserve anything like this," said Nostalgia Pitts, Armonie's aunt.
But before the crowd let off their balloons, they played a song written by Armonie's dad, dedicated to his son.
And as everyone shouted and released their balloons, Anderson was still hanging on to his.
"It's my letter to my boy that he was supposed to grow up and listen to and play whenever he wanted to remember me, not the other way around," said Anderson, referencing the song he wrote about Armonie.