LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Loved ones walked to remember a 16-year-old girl who was shot and killed in the Shawnee neighborhood last year.
Nylah Linear was found dead on July 21, 2021 on Cecil Avenue near West Market Street. She was going to her aunt's house just a few blocks from her home.
Exactly one year later, community members participated in “Nylah’s Last Walk,” a tribute and the final path she took before she died.
"Nylah would've wanted me to walk today. She would've wanted me to walk,” her mother, Candy Linear, said. “She would’ve wanted me to walk for her."
Linear said it’s about unity.
“For the cause of stopping the violence, to stop us mothers having to meet by burying our children," she said.
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The short walk brought out dozens of people; the sea of pink was filled with family and grieving parents mourning their own losses - parents like Maureen Coppel.
Coppel lost her son to a fentanyl overdose five weeks before Nylah died. She and Linear met following Nylah's funeral and the connection was instant.
“Of course, I walked partly for my son tonight,” Coppel said. “You know we walk together. The only way to get through it is just to be united and try to help each other through it."
It's the only way Linear said she's been able to make it to this somber anniversary.
"I appreciate every single one of y’all because I couldn't do it by myself even though I know this journey, part of it I have to do alone,” Linear said to the crowd of supporters.
It’s a journey no one can understand, but Linear's grateful for the lives she's been able to touch.
Now, her baby girl's name will not only live on in the community, but the entire city. The City of Louisville gave her a proclamation, declaring July 21 Nylah Linear Day.
"It means that the walking that I'm doing and the crying and everything that I'm doing, somebody noticed me and my baby and that means a lot,” Linear said.
Linear said she's giving away four scholarships to track runners at PRP High School next year, the school her daughter attended. She’s calling for donations to the Nylah Linear Foundation in order to give out more.
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