ATLANTA — It's been one week since 16-year-old Bre'Asia Powell was gunned down outside of Atlanta's Benjamin E. Mays High School. On Saturday, family and friends came together to honor her in a day of sorrow and celebration.
Powell was described as a light by her family and friends who came out to honor her brief, but impactful time that everyone around her could feel while she was on this earth.
Hundreds of people packed inside Jackson Memorial Baptist Church to spend hours celebrating the life cut short by senseless gunfire just one weekend ago.
"It hurt so many of us because she really didn't do nothing to nobody," one of Powell's friends said. "She was just a happy soul so it hurt our feelings real bad because we was all close."
Community leaders, faith leaders and even some hip-hop stars spoke to a sanctuary full of grief for the teenage girl who was celebrating with her friends outside of the high school when she was ultimately shot and killed.
We're used to burying the elderly, not to see a beautiful 16-year-old vibrant superstar, athlete, played tennis... she was so productive," Atlanta City Council member Andrea Boone said.
Powell was involved in multiple activities and had big plans for her bright future, but Boone said the latest killing of a young life in Atlanta should act as a wake-up call for parents to take action.
"Let's get them a job. Let's get them something to do around the house," Boone said. "Let's be productive, productive, productive parents so that we will not have another funeral this summer.