Justin Taylor was a 15-year-old Black male with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for writing. A student at Austin-East Magnet High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, Justin started his own lawn care business, enjoyed making rap music, and was looking forward to graduating in 2024. His parents remembered him as a young man who was full of life.
On the night of January 27, 2021, Justin was sitting in the front seat of a car with a friend.
According to court records, a 17-year-old friend sitting in the back seat was handling a gun he had illegally purchased. The teen had removed the magazine from the weapon and was pulling on the slide when his finger hit the trigger. A bullet that remained in the chamber fired, striking Justin in the back. After the shooting, the car was driven to the parking lot of the Western Heights Baptist Center, where authorities were called and discovered Justin’s body.
The Knoxville Police Department quickly launched an investigation. Their efforts led to the arrest of the 17-year-old, who was identified as a friend of Justin's. The teen was initially charged with criminally negligent homicide. Because he was a minor at the time of the shooting, authorities did not publicly release his name.
The case was transferred from juvenile court to the adult criminal court system. In March 2021, the teen pleaded guilty to one count of reckless homicide and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon. The following month, in April 2021, a judge sentenced him to four years of supervised probation. The sentence was issued under judicial diversion, meaning the conviction would be removed from his record if he successfully completed the terms of his probation.
