‘He was a great young man.’ Mother mourns son, 18, killed in Como shooting
READ MORE
Deadly shooting in west Fort Worth
Three people were killed and eight wounded late Monday when gunfire erupted in a Como parking lot following ComoFest, the west Fort Worth neighborhood’s annual Fourth of July celebration.
Expand All
Ka’Desha Weatherly went to ComoFest with her sons, but then left them to be with their friends.
July 3 parties are a staple in Como, dating to the 1980s, with a Fourth of July parade the next morning.
“They’re teenagers, they want to go with their friends,” Weatherly said. “They don’t want to see girls around me.”
About 11:45 p.m. Monday, gunshots were fired at the intersection of Horne Street and Diaz Avenue near the Como Food Mart. Weatherly roamed through the streets to look for her sons as the crowd of hundreds dispersed.
Her son, Paul Timothy Willis, 18, was among the three who died in the shooting. Eight others were wounded.
“I walked past my baby dead,” Weatherly said. “I didn’t even see it was him.”
She waited for three hours in a police line until they told her Willis had died.
Weatherly said her son recently graduated from high school. He got a job, was able to leave Como and move into his own apartment. While growing up in Como, she said many of the children admired Willis, as he would feed them, drive them places and made sure their needs were met.
“He was a great, outstanding young man,” Weatherly said. “How do I tell my youngest son to do the right thing, when you do everything perfect and you get killed at 18?”
This story was originally published July 4, 2023 at 2:41 PM.
