Camar Cordero made it through his school day on Friday, May 29th. He got on the bus. He rode it home the way he had done countless times before. And when he stepped off at North 6th Street and Emerald Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at around 3:15 in the afternoon, a 16-year-old boy was waiting and opened fire.
Camar was 17 years old. He was a junior at Harrisburg High School. He was looking forward to senior year.
He was rushed to the hospital after being shot but did not survive his injuries. The Dauphin County coroner officially confirmed his identity and age in the days that followed.
Police say 16-year-old Jeremiah Moran admitted to investigators that he was the one who pulled the trigger. Moran now faces a murder charge along with firearm-related offenses and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 22.
Harrisburg Police Captain Kyle Gautsch confirmed during a press conference that Camar and Moran were acquaintances and that the shooting was not random.
A prior fight between the two, according to family, is what led to that moment at the bus stop. Surveillance footage helped investigators identify Moran as the alleged gunman.
The Boy Behind the Headlines
What the police reports and court dates do not capture is who Camar actually was.
His older cousin Kiara Robinson, who had known him since the day he was born, spoke about him in a way that painted a picture of a kid who was deeply loved and deeply loving in return.
“He was a great kid,” she said. “He loved his mom. Every day, he would kiss his mom on the forehead.”
Camar was finishing up his junior year and was already thinking about what came next. He had plans. He wanted to become a tattoo artist after graduating.
In the meantime he spent his free time gaming, listening to music, and being around his family. By every account he was a regular teenager with a full life ahead of him.
When Robinson found out what had happened, she was in the middle of planning her one-year-old son’s birthday party. The call from Camar’s mother stopped everything.
“I was texting his mom, and then she calls me and she is like, they’re saying someone shot Camar,” Robinson recalled. “I was morally confused because Camar? What do you mean, Camar?”
The grief that followed was immediate and overwhelming.
“Every day I wake up, I’m like, this can’t be real,” she said. “We went from planning a birthday party to now planning a funeral.”
Robinson did not hold back when talking about the senselessness of what happened. Two school buses full of children were at that stop when the shooting occurred. “He could have took any other steps instead of pulling up to a bus that was a bus full of kids, two buses full of kids,” she said. “You killed Camar, but you also put so many different lives in danger, so many different lives.”
A Community Responding to the Unthinkable
Harrisburg School District superintendent Benjamin Henry issued a statement that made clear he was not willing to treat this as just another tragedy to move past.
“As a father and an educator, I refuse to normalize this tragic shooting,” he wrote. “I cannot accept that this level of violence is simply something that our children must endure. I am calling on every person in the city of Harrisburg, every parent, every neighbor, every faith leader, every elected official, and every community member, to refuse to accept this as well. We must come together and each find ways to create change. Our children are counting on us, and there is no better time for meaningful action.”
A balloon release was held in Camar’s honor on Wednesday, June 3rd at 5:00 p.m. at the corner of North 6th Street and Emerald Street, the same spot where he lost his life. The community was asked to bring blue balloons.
A close friend of Camar’s mother Marcella Everson, Nastasha Foster, set up a GoFundMe on the family’s behalf to help cover funeral expenses and ease the financial pressure on a mother who is now facing the unimaginable.
“No parent should have to worry about finances while mourning the loss of their child,” Foster wrote. “We ask that we honor Camar’s life, remember his name, and uplift the family as they navigate a loss no family should ever endure.”
The fundraiser has already raised nearly $2,500 toward its $9,000 goal. Anyone who wants to support Marcella and her family..
Camar Cordero was 17 years old. He kissed his mom on the forehead every single day. He had plans, he had people who loved him, and he had a whole senior year waiting for him.
He never made it home from the bus stop.