Late last month, bond hearings were held for two white Alabama teenagers charged with murder in the death of a Black 19-year-old killed on Thanksgiving Day in Mobile.
Police arrested 17-year-old Anthony Macpherson and 17-year-old Lucy Rutledge in the slaying of 19-yearTavon Holder, who was killed on the night of Nov. 26.
Macpherson and Rutledge are alleged to have met with Holder to sell him marijuana. Police initially responded to the apartment complex after reports of shots fired.
Officers discovered Holder unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead by medical persnonel.
Both teens have been charged with murder, although Macpherson is suspected of pulling trigger, the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office reports.
Natasha Myles, Holder’s mother, had seen her son just 45 minutes prior to the shooting.
“I said ‘Tavon.’ I said, ‘I love you son,'” she told Fox 10. She also said the day he died was Holder’s birthday.
“I said, ‘We shared an experience 19 years ago.. me and you in the hospital,’ and he start laughing … he said, ‘I know, Ma.’”
Holder graduated from Blount High School in May and enlisted in the Army to become a geospatial engineer.
“He was our engineer,” Myles said.
Myles also spoke about the moment she approached the scene where her son died.
“I walked up and saw his body and saw the blood running and saw his work shoes on, the same work shoes I fuss at him about ‘take ’em off at the door!’ and they were on his feet, and I couldn’t tell him, ‘Son, take your shoes off.’”
Macpherson and Rutledge were arrested the next day. Macpherson’s bond was set at $125,000 and Rutledge’s was set at $75,000.
A fundraiser started by Holder’s family has raised $5,000. His mother said there isn’t any justice for her son because he can’t come back and because what’s done is done.
“Tavon was a respectful and kind young man,” read the description on the fundraiser site Ever Loved. “He was known to be a very bright young man. He stayed in his books. He recently completed his basic training for the US Army, and planned to enroll back into the University of Kansas for the Spring Semester. Tavon was a very hard working young man known for keeping an after-school job during his high-school years, and was employed at Cracker Barrel at the time of his death.”
Myles also said she has already forgiven the pair of teens, who have also been charged with distribution of a controlled substance. Police haven’t named a motive in the shooting.
