Elkhart community remembers Teketa Hixson with vigil

The Elkhart community remembered Teketa Hixson Saturday night with a vigil. The 34-year-old was shot while in her home on Park Avenue in Elkhart Wednesday and was pronounced dead Friday.

Police have arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection with her death.

Now, her friends and family are banding together to cope with her loss.

“I have to do a vigil for my best friend, and I never would have thought it would take something like this, no,” said Teketa Hixson’s best friend, Dionell Hill.

“All I can say is ya’ll I tried to save her, I did,” said her fiancée Jasmine Turner.

“Took her away from her four kids. I’m left to raise and struggle. I just want some closure,” said Hixson’s mother, Gwendolyn Bates.

“Keda was happy before she left, and I was happy that she was happy,” said her friend Sylvester Embrey.

“I felt like everybody loved her. She was blessed to be loved by so many friends,” said her mother.

“I can’t say bye to her just yet. I know she in heaven looking at everybody. But I love that girl. She like another sister to me,” said Hixson’s friend Chardanay Holmes.

“Teketa I just want you to know I love you baby, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure your kids are okay,” said Teketa’s fiancée, Jasmine.

“I’m not only speaking for other families no more. I’m speaking for my family, now. Because it came and it home, and I’m hoping that this community can really come together,” said Dionell Hill.

“We still going to stick together like we did when she was here. Ain’t nothing going to change except that we not going to see Keda,” said Embrey.

“Just as sure as we are sitting out here celebrating her right now, beacuase we know that this is the right thing to do. Because we know this is what she would have wanted. I know without a shadow of a doubt, this is who she is,” said Hill.

Teketa had a heart of gold. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for anybody. The person who took her took our souls,” said Taketa’s mother Gwendolyn. “She’ll always be in our hearts.”

If you want to contribute to her burial expenses, click this link to the gofundme page her family has set up.