PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — It’s been nearly two years since Kennisha Clark’s son, Jorian Dante Hardeway, was murdered at a nightclub in downtown Austin on March 14, 2021.
“The hurt that I feel is unexplainable. I have a hole in my heart and I shouldn’t feel like this. My son was young, he had dreams,” Kennisha Clark said. “The gun violence has been ridiculous, and it’s not just someone dying, it’s the Black race,” Clark said. “Black-on-Black crime, we’re killing our own kind and it needs to stop.”
It’s a hard day for those the father of two left behind. His family and friends, including his father, Ebony Hardeway, spent a few hours at Pflugerville Lake, remembering what would have been his 26th birthday.
“He became a great man, an awesome man,” Hardeway said. “I’m hurt. I’m dying behind this. I die every day. It takes a lot to get out of the bed.”
Austin native Adriean Benn is facing a first-degree murder charge in the shooting and after a hiatus because of the pandemic, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office tells Spectrum News 1 Texas they expect to proceed to trial later this year.
“If you commit the crime, you do the time. That’s what I think about it,” Clark said.
According to Everystat.org, 15 out of every 100,000 African-Americans in Texas are killed in gun-related incidents.
“To get justice not only for him but for his kids that he was very involved with,” family member Tonya Britton said. “It’s heartbreaking to hear his kids talk about him and to wake up at night crying."
For many victims like Jorian Dante Hardeway, those lost by these senseless crimes never have the chance to fully reach their potential. According to a recent study by Johns Hopkins University on gun violence, one in 1,000 African American males lost their lives in these specific acts of violence in 2020.
Clark plans to honor her son with an annual march on March 14 in his honor and to rally behind others that have been left with similar pain because of these tragedies.
“It’s not going to stop even when I get justice,” Clark said. “I’m still going to fight just for other mothers that have lost a loved one due to gun violence.”