MESQUITE, Texas — Shanika Palmer walked into Mesquite’s Cornerstone Baptist Church Monday night and fell to the floor in tears.
Her family picked her up and helped her inside the sanctuary where the mayor of her city, a pastor, spoke directly to her.
“We’ll continue to pray for you. You have family here, and you’re not alone. God is with you,” Mayor Dan Aleman said.
He led what he called an “hour of prayer,” during which pastors from various churches across Mesquite passed the microphone and prayed about the murder of Palmer’s 16-year-old son.
“Our neighbor was killed in our city on our watch,” one pastor said.
“Lord, this was a violent weekend in our city. And we say, ‘No more!’” prayed another.
Palmer sobbed for most of the service as loved ones patted her back and wiped her tears.
Hours earlier, in her front yard, she told stories about her son and recounted what happened on Saturday.
“Everybody that knows Key’Mydre knows he was the sweetest person he could be,” she said. “That’s my first born.”
Key’Mydre Palmer Anderson had finished his shift at Sonic around 5:15 p.m., and then he went to the grocery store with his grandmother, Palmer said.
Sometime between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. that evening, Palmer said her son walked out the front door and got in a car with someone she believes he knew.
By 7:05 p.m., a 911 call came into Mesquite Police.
Witnesses saw someone fall out of a vehicle in the 2800 block of Clay Mathis Road.
They told police they thought they’d witnessed a car crash.
“They thought the 16-year-old was involved in an accident, and in fact it wasn’t an accident,” said Mesquite police officer Jolyn Lopez.
Paramedics discovered the boy had been shot in the chest.
Palmer said police knocked on her front door around 10:40 p.m. to tell her that her son had died at a local hospital.
“You didn’t have to take his life,” she said.
The site where Key’Mydre’s body was discovered is only “two minutes” from his mother’s home, she said.
It’s also across the street from the church where dozens of people stopped to pray Monday night.
They sang "Amazing Grace" at the end of the service.
Palmer held on to loved ones and stood as long as she could, then she sank into her seat before the song ended.