Family of 17-year-old was killed Sunday during a speech against gun violence after three more teenagers were killed on Tuesday

HOUSTON – Three teenagers are killed in a triple murder in Alief.

While Houston police search for the killer, Harris County sheriff’s deputies are on the hunt for a gunman who killed a 17-year-old in Northwest Harris County. FOX 26 spoke with that teen’s loved ones.

PRESENTED: Crime in Houston: Family hears fatal gunshots that killed 17-year-old teen

The news that three more teenagers have been shot in the Houston area is heartbreaking for this family who just lost their 17-year-old child to gun violence on Sunday.

“It’s pointless, and it’s gotten to the point where kids don’t bury their parents, parents don’t bury their kids, and it shouldn’t be that way at all,” said Melissa, the mother of 17-year-old Aldolphus “AJ” McKenzie. Gilbert.

“We have three children there who are dead. My grandson is dead, and I’m just in pain. Now that we have a new president, maybe we can pass a new law, Adolphus’ Law, to keep guns off the streets,” added AJ’s grandmother, Joyce Gilbert.

The 17-year-old was shot dead in his own neighborhood at the Evolve Champions Apartments on TC Jester on Sunday. Two days later, on the other side of town in the Alief neighborhood, detectives say two teenagers were in the laundry room of the Tierra Del Sol Apartments on Cook Road when three other teenagers entered and an argument between the two groups turned into a shootout led.

“A very tragic event here. We have family here. We have young lives that have been lost. Please keep the families in your thoughts and prayers,” said Asst. Chief Alvaro Guzman of the Houston Police Department.

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The two teenagers who were originally in the laundry room were murdered inside. A third youth who had been with two other boys was found shot outside the washroom and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

17-year-old Jonathan Hernandez is one of the teens killed in the triple homicide. His loved ones say they are heartbroken.

Meanwhile, McKenzie’s family members say they are in prayers for those families as well as their own.

“We were out of town and, what’s so sad about it, I was looking for 17-year-olds who had been murdered in Houston, and you’d be surprised how many 17-year-old children who had been shot I had to come across before I got to our baby came and it hurt my heart,” said McKenzie’s aunt Bridjett Osborne.

“This is my baby. This is my 17 year old son, and he will never walk through that door or say another word to me again. He was funny. He was talented. He was everything a parent could want. I want those who have done it to know that it is not worth it. Just turn yourself in,” AJ’s mother said.

“Kids are killing kids every day, all day long, and I’m in pain. They don’t understand the pain we’re going through. My heart goes out to the family of the kids who killed my grandson. They’re going to have to go through a lot too.” .This is sad. No one wins when it comes to gun violence,” says AJ’s grieving grandmother.

The family held a balloon release and prayer vigil in AJ’s memory. They say they want justice in their case and for the families of the three teenagers shot dead in the triple homicide in Alief.

So far, no one has been arrested or charged in either case.