Shamara Young was 15 years old when she was shot and killed in an act of road rage in Oakland earlier this month. On Wednesday, a week after her killing, students at Oakland’s Fremont High School remembered her.
“We are honoring her, and everything that she was, and everything that she would be,” restorative justice facilitator Tatiana Chatterjee said in a statement. “And I just want to honor Shamara as the beautiful, wonderful, brave, loving person that we all loved.”
Shamara was riding in a vehicle with her uncle on Oct. 6 when he and a person in another vehicle got into an argument. That led to a shooting, Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said at a news conference following the crime.
Shamara was shot just before 11:30 p.m. in the 5000 block of Bancroft Avenue as she was returning from a hair appointment, police and Cassandra Chen, one of Shamara’s former teachers, said.
“Her community and circle of friends run deep as she was loved fiercely by everyone who had the chance to meet her,” Chen wrote in a GoFundMe post to raise money for Shamara’s family.
As of Monday afternoon, the campaign had raised $11,855 toward a $20,000 goal, which was increased from an original objective of $10,000.
Shamara, a junior at Fremont High, was the 109th homicide victim in Oakland this year.
“We lost an angel,” culture and climate ambassador Melvin Phillips said in a statement.
Oakland Unified School District officials said Shamara loved being at school.
“She had so much energy and so much light. I just want to remember, every time we’re doing circle, and passing that talking piece, and being here at Fremont, we are keeping her alive.”
Tatiana Chatterjee, restorative justice facilitator
Violence prevention educator Joshua Rogers, who helps students at Fremont and Castlemont High School through Teens on Target, said he didn’t know Shamara, but he still felt her loss.
“That’s what happens in a community, we feel it,” Rogers said in a statement. “We all feel it. It has a ripple effect for all of us.”
Nina Hatcher, Shamara’s grandmother, was at the school memorial and said thank you to the people who said kind words about her granddaughter.
“She had just joined the JV basketball team,” Hatcher said. “Her strength was socializing. She liked to make everyone happy.”
“She just had this big presence, just big,” Chatterjee added. “She had so much energy and so much light. I just want to remember, every time we’re doing circle, and passing that talking piece, and being here at Fremont, we are keeping her alive.”