LEXINGTON PARK, Md. — It has been a long year for the family of Jaelynn Willey whose life was cut shot when a teen gunman shot her at Great Mills High School last year. As the one-year anniversary approaches, her mother tells WUSA9 how her daughter should be remembered.
Melissa Willey and her family are still healing after losing Jaelynn, a loving 16-year-old honor student and star swimmer, almost one year ago.
"If Jaelynn were alive today, she would be 16, a junior at Great Mills and she'd probably be picking something for her future,” said Willey, who has tried to be strong for her husband and eight children.
“ [There’s] happy kids some days, sad kids other days, happy kid an hour it varies,” said Willey, who described how Jaelynn’s siblings have been managing.
Willey and her husband still visit Great Mills High because they must, they have two kids who go there.
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“It’s sad to think that she was here and gone very quickly,” said Willey, while walking in an empty hallway with WUSA9. “ I’m not thrilled about sending them [two kids], but they are here.”
On March 20, 2018, a 17-year-old gunman brought his father’s glock semi-automatic handgun to school. The day barely started before he approached Jaelynn, as she was getting ready for math class, and shot her in the head. The same bullet hit Desmond Barnes,14, in the leg. He was treated and released from a hospital.
That morning, Willey and her oldest son tried to reach Jaelynn on her cell phone, but the 16-year-old never answered. Willey said she had a gut feeling that her precious daughter was a victim.
"Absolutely, I knew she was one," Willey said. “As soon as I didn't get ahold of her, I knew there was something wrong."
An officer broke the news at a pick-up location for students. Willey was asked to step into a quiet room after she signed her kids’ names on a piece of paper. It was then, her worst nightmare came true and it took her breath away.
“Why the heck her, why her, just why?,” she asked. “You trust that they're going to go to school then come home and then they don't. That's not good."
A school resource officer confronted the teen shooter less than a minute after he opened fire. The gunman took his own life moments later. Jaelynn was on life support for two days until doctors told her family there was nothing they could do. Jaelynn was brain dead, and her family faced the tough decision of taking her off life support.
Willey described those two days as “a living hell.” She said there was a lot of people and a lot of decision making.
Jaelynn was known to family and friends as a happy, easy-going girl with a bright future who wanted to help children with special needs swim. She was the second oldest of nine and loved spending time with her brothers and sisters.
When she passed, one of the moms in the community made green and gold ribbons with a female swimmer in the middle of it. Willey smiles when she looks at it.
She also wears a silver necklace with Jaelynn’s picture on it. Another mother gave it to her the night Jaelynn would have gone to prom with another student.
"My kids kiss it all the time, “said Willey, who wears the necklace every day. “They kiss her at night and throughout the day."
Jaelynn’s attacker was no stranger. They were classmates turned friends who dated, but Willey makes it clear they were never in a relationship.
“Jaelynn went out with this boy five times, it was not a long-term relationship, it was not, “ she said. “ I told her he was off."
While Willey would not describe specifics about the gunman’s persona, she tells WUSA9 that her intuition gave her an odd feeling.
Later this month, a swim meet is planned to raise money for a scholarship in Jaelynn’s name.
A memorial will be installed at the school this spring.