PENN HILLS, Pa. — Family and friends filled Petra International Ministries in Penn Hills on Wednesday to honor the life of Tristan Taylor, 18.
Taylor was shot and killed in the East Hills two weeks ago. Pittsburgh police have not made any arrests in the case.
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Taylor’s mom, Jokima Brown, invited Channel 11 to cover his funeral. She said it is important that she speaks for her son and shares his story, as he can no longer speak for himself.
The funeral, which lasted roughly an hour and a half, featured several speakers, including Taylor’s uncle and grandmother.
“We see here a young man that was full of purpose and destiny, and what happened to him was not his fault,” one man told mourners.
2026 should have been one of Taylor’s best years. He graduated from Pittsburgh Allderdice High School in mid-June.
“That day was like one of the proudest moments of my life,” his uncle said during the funeral service.
Taylor was going to start college at CCAC in the fall.
Less than three weeks after family gathered to cheer on Taylor as he crossed the graduation stage, they called each other sharing shocking news that he had been shot and killed. He lost his life in front of his mom.
Brown said the family was walking home from a vigil when they passed a group of kids who started taunting Taylor and other members of the family. His mom told Channel 11 Taylor was not threatening anyone and said “chill bro. I’m trying to go home.”
She said that’s when someone pulled out a gun and shot her son right beside her. Taylor died at his aunt’s home, as loved ones tried frantically to save him.
“I kept screaming, ‘Tristan, fight! Fight!’ And he was trying,” Brown said.
The vigil the family had just left that night was for Taylor’s cousin Jo’Markius Fuller, who was shot and killed in the same neighborhood in 2018. The case remains unsolved.
“He gave the best hugs,” Fuller’s mom Dominique Brown told 11 Investigates at a cold case event last month. “I wouldn’t want this to happen to anybody, cause once that casket closes, that’s it. You know? I just would want them to step in our shoes. What if it was their child?”
Dominique Brown’s sister Jokima sat right next to her during the interview, comforting her throughout and supporting her in the way she has for eight years.
At the time, no one could have imagined that Jokima’s son would be killed within a matter of weeks.
Now Jokima Brown also knows the pain of losing a child and the questions that haunt a parent after.
“He worked. He went to school. He was at my sister’s with my mom reading Bible scriptures,” she told Channel 11’s Lauren Talotta the day after her son was killed. “I don’t know. I keep crying on and off cause it’s just like… I can’t call him.”
She described her son as quiet, respectful and hardworking. She said he kept to himself, had a job and had plans for his future.
“We will honor the courage he showed by protecting those he loved like he always did,” one speaker said during the service. “We can honor him by becoming the kind of community where our children can remain and grow old.”
11 Investigates will continue checking with Pittsburgh police, asking for updates on the case. So far, police have not said if they have a suspect or if they know who killed Taylor.
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