Loved ones hold a vigil for 19-year-old killed outside of Dekalb County convenience store

Vigil held for teen fatally shot outside of DeKalb Food Mart

DeKalb County are searching for whoever is responsible for shooting and killing 19-year-old Jakare McKellar outside of the Food Mart on Flat Shoals Parkway.

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A family is pleading for answers following the death of 19-year-old Jakare McKellar on Wednesday. 

On Friday evening, friends and family gathered around a makeshift memorial in front of Dekalb County convenience store where the 19-year-old was gunned down. 

They released balloons, lit candles, and said a prayer to honor a life cut short.

"I stood right there on three or four occasions watching other people lay here dead," said Johnnie Jones, McKellar's grandmother. "Never did I think I would be standing here." 

She said her grandson was at the Food Mart on Flat Shoals Parkway when someone drove up and shot him. 

Jones was like a mother to McKellar. She raised him since he was a baby.

"It's hard. It's hard because when I got the news I was asleep. I thought Jakare was asleep. I didn't know he had left," Jones said. 

Teen shot and killed in DeKalb County, suspect at large

DeKalb County police are searching for the gunman who shot and killed a 19-year-old in front of a Food Mart located on Flat Shoals Parkway Wednesday night.

Family members said McKeller had just started a new job and was excited about his budding music career.. 

"Let this be an example that you can turn your life around. You can get out of whatever you're in to and make a new start, like Jakare was going to do," Jones said. 

If you have any information on this shooting, please contact the Dekalb County Police Department. 

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