TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma family is remembering 19-year-old McKinley Williams, who was shot and killed in Auburn last week.
On Tuesday, they came together at Stewart Heights Park in Tacoma with lit candles, long hugs, and warm memories.
“McKinley was a very sweet boy. He loved his family a lot,” said Amanda Collins, McKinley’s mother. “He was a very special, kind soul. Very kind, considerate helped others. Always helped his friends.”
Collins told KIRO 7 that her son meant the world to her. She was heartbroken to find out his life was taken so soon.
" It’s more and more every day and families are destroyed. And it’s not just the person that dies. It’s the person that pulls the trigger. Their whole family is destroyed as well,” she said.
Collins said McKinley was a good kid with goals to become a mechanic and travel to California.
If you’d like to help with his funeral expenses, click here for the GoFundMe.
“I want everybody to know that he was good and he wasn’t part of any gangs or out doing, you know, things that people assume when this stuff happens.”
To celebrate the life he lived, she brought together the people whose lives he’d touched.
“My little brother was friends with every single person because he knew how to be so, so kind and thoughtful and he was so soulful. He had such an old soul at a young age,” said Caleb Collins, McKinley’s older brother.
Caleb couldn’t help but smile talking about how proud he is of his younger brother.
“He felt like the perfect boy. He knew how to make you laugh, you know, how to cheer you up if you were sad. For me, he was just like everything that you could want – everything.”
Auburn Police are still searching for the suspect.
The Auburn Police Department is asking anyone with information about this incident to contact their tip line at 253-288-7403.