Family of 17-year-old killed Sunday speaking against gun violence after 3 more teens were killed Tuesday

Houston crime: Family members grieving loss of teens following recent shootings

FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith spoke with family members of one 17-year-old who are devastated after their family member was killed over the weekend.

HOUSTON - A triple homicide leaves three teenagers dead in Alief.

Even as Houston police search for their 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.

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

"It's senseless, and it's to the point where children aren't burying their parents, parents are burying their children, and it shouldn't be that way at all," says 17-year-old Aldolphus "AJ" McKenzie's mother, Melissa Gilbert.

"We've got three kids over there dead. We've got my grandson dead, and I'm just, I'm hurting. Now that we've got a new president, maybe we can pass a new law, Adolphus' law, to keep guns off the street," adds AJ's grandmother, Joyce Gilbert.

The 17-year-old was shot to death on Sunday in his own neighborhood in the Evolve Champions Apartments on TC Jester. Two days later, across town in the Alief area, detectives say two teens were in the laundry room at the Tierra Del Sol Apartments on Cook Road when three other teens walked in and an argument between the two groups led to a shootout.

"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," says Asst. Chief Alvaro Guzman with the Houston Police Department.

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The two teens who were originally in the laundry room were killed inside. A third youngster who had been with two other boys was found shot outside the laundry room 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 left heartbroken.

Meanwhile, relatives of McKenzie say they are in prayer 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 killed in Houston, and you'd be surprised how many 17-year-old kids that had been shot I had to come across before I got to our baby and that hurt my heart," says McKenzie's Aunt Bridjett Osborne.

"This is my baby. This is my 17-year-old son, and he will never come through that door or say another word to me ever again. He was funny. He was talented. He was everything a parent could ask for. To the ones that did it I want to let them know, just, it's not worth it. Just turn yourself in," says AJ's mother.

"Kids are killing kids every day, all day long, and I'm hurting. They don't understand the pain we're going through. My heart goes out to the family of the kids that killed my grandson. They're going to have to endure a lot too. This is sad. Nobody wins when it comes to gun violence," says AJ's grieving grandmother.

The family held a balloon release and prayer vigil in remembrance of AJ. They say they want justice in their case and for the families of the three teens shot and killed in the triple murder in Alief.

As of right now, no one has been arrested or charged in either case.