I was about 10 years old when this happened. It hurt everybody in the family and most of his friends. It changed many people’s lives.

It was August 4, 2011 a summer day. Everything was normal we cleaned the house, watched TV, and waited till my parents got home. We waited for more than an hour for my mother to get home and when she did I know that something was wrong. She walked in the door crying on the phone. We didn’t know what was going on until she got out of the shower and told us to get ready because when my dad got home we were going to the hospital.

On the way there I finally had the courage to tell her what was going on and she told me somebody got shot. It was a long ride. I still didn’t get what was going on. We finally got to the hospital and I see all my aunts, uncles, cousins and some of my cousin’s friends. I knew it wasn’t going to be a good ending. Everybody was crying when I got out of the car. I went to hug and uncle that I haven’t seen in forever. He was crying to. It made me worried now, so I started to cry.
We waited there for about half an hour. When we finally left my little sister Leslie asked what was going on. My mom said that my cousin Jose Juan got shot and he had died that’s why we went to the hospital. I finally got it and I really broke down when she said that. The whole ride home all you heard was crying. I thought that the last time I had seen him was 2 days before that morning he was going to work. It was an unexpected death. He was a wonderful person, he loved everybody and he always had a smile on his face. I didn’t know who would want to hurt him.
Five days went passed the day of the wake. The funeral home was packed. So many people went that we had to rent the funeral hall for 3 more hours so people could have time to see him. The next day, the day of the barrel, I didn’t know that it was going to be as hard as it was but all I could do was cry.
Everything didn’t go back to normal for a while. Nothing really felt the same. It made my family stronger and closer together. It also made some of my family fight and stop talking to each other.
I had never had something like that happen to me in my life. I didn’t know what to do. I had no experience about any of that, but I know that that was the hardest thing that I went through in my entire life. I don’t want to experience anything like that ever again, but I know that someday I will have to go through that once again.