My name is Miranda, and on Monday October 9th, at approximately 9pm, I received the worst possible call a mother could get, and was informed that my 16 year old baby boy had been shot in the head and was instructed to meet police officers at the hospital ASAP. Not knowing whether he was dead, alive, or would even be recognizable, I anxiously rushed to the emergency room and waited in agony for doctors to call me back and explain to me what his condition and prognosis was. After the longest 20 or 30 minutes of my life passed by, I am now told by the least compassionate and abrasive trauma doctor that his injuries were not operable and devastating to both hemispheres of his brain and that he had no chance of surviving and that although he was stabilized and was on a ventilator, his pupils were unresponsive and he had no reflexes of his own. After what felt like an eternity, i was allowed back to see him, but due to the circumstances, nobody else could come and support me face the scariest thing of my life. Although he was bandaged and had tubes and was still covered in blood, his face was still as beautiful as always and the small caliber of his entry wound seemed almost superficial, making it harder for me to process and accept that this was the end. I refused to lose hope and he refused to let go, so we prayed and prayed and tried everything possible for a week and a day until he could be legally declared brain dead and taken off the ventilator proving he was not breathing on his own. If this wasn’t already the most painful experience of my entire life, throughout my stay in the hospital I am exposed to the footage of my baby boy being shot in cold

blooded murder caught on someone’s security camera and aired by every last local news station. And then insulted, attacked and threatened by comments on social media stemming from the media’s lack of

consideration and or class. I am a single parent and in between jobs, and I am unsure of how I am going to give my son the proper services that he badly deserves. He is more than just my son, but also my best friend who I am going to miss forever. I never thought i would be faced to make the final decisions on his death and I dont know that i could have done so without the support and strength of my 3 older children, my parents, Clint, and the wonderful staff at Lopa who will be helping my little hero to save the lives of at least 9 others through organ donation. Please help me to honor and memorialize Ghannon, and see to it that he gets the legal justice that he deserves and that the suspects involved are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.