Vigil for toddler unites mourners. ‘Tonight is the start of a healing for our city’

People traveled from surrounding North Texas cities on Thursday for a candlelight vigil in support of the bereaved family of a toddler who was fatally stabbed Sunday.

They gathered at Wayne Ferguson Plaza in the center of Lewisville to light candles and sing gospel songs to show love for those suffering through the loss of 16-month-old Ashton Reyn.

The child’s father, identified as Blair Ness by the City of Lewisville jail, is accused of stabbing his son to death. The father has been charged with capital murder.

The child was initially identified as Ashton Ness of Lewisville by the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

The child’s mother was at work when the incident occurred, police said.

Ben Moreno, pastor of Valley Creek Church next door to the apartment complex where the stabbing occurred, told the crowd that he could not explain the events of this past Sunday. But he asked those gathered to continue to love and support the family in their time of grief.

“I know this — the sun will shine on us again,” Moreno said. “Even though we are individuals, we are way better together. Family and friends, continue to support this family and love them in the days ahead.”

Heidi Kuehn, a Valley Creek church member in the crowd, said she could hear the sirens from the emergency vehicles hurrying to the crime scene as they passed the front door of the church last Sunday.

When officers responded to a report of a stabbing at the Oak Forest Apartments at 1531 S. State Highway 121, witnesses told them that a man was beating and stabbing a child in the courtyard near an apartment building.

The attack ended when a witness armed with a handgun fired from his second-floor apartment balcony, hitting Ness in his leg, police said.

Delvin Atchison, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Lewisville, told the crowd Thursday that he knew that some people at the gathering did not know the family or even their names.

But they came because they knew that there were people hurting in Lewisville.

“It’s not the duration of a life, it’s the donation of a life,” Atchison said. “God knows the pain of losing a child. “

The family can have hope that the resurrection God gave to his son, he can give to your son, Atchison said.

T-Ronn Hicks, one of those who organized the gathering, said he was humbled, shaken, yet honored to be at Wayne Ferguson Plaza on Thursday. Honored because Ashton broke down barriers with his death, bringing people from across North Texas of all colors together to ease a family’s pain, Hicks said.

“In my opinion, he’s a world-changer,” Hicks said. “Tonight is the start of a healing for our city.”

This story includes information from Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published August 23, 2018 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Vigil for toddler unites mourners. ‘Tonight is the start of a healing for our city’."