Brandon Jackson's Family Speaks at Pasadena Community Meeting

At a community meeting in Pasadena on Thursday night that was held to address recent violence in Pasadena that may be related to the , two of Jackson's aunts got up to share memories of Brandon and some of their feelings about his death.

Cynthia Brown, one of his aunts, said that Brandon has experienced "turmoil" in his life.  She noted that her sister, Brandon's mom, died in 2007, and after having straight As in middle school, Brandon started to have trouble in school.

"He lost his mom, my sister, in 2007, and he was still struggling with that and other family issues," a tearful Brown told a crowded room at the Robinson Park gymnasium. 

Cheri Costly, his other aunt who was at the meeting, noted that Brandon's older sister stepped in to take care of him and his three brothers when she was just 21.

"At 21, she took on the responsibility of raising four boys," Costly said.  "In addition, she had her own child.  So if you can imagine her, what she’s going through now, she has not gotten over demise of her mom, and now she has this issue to deal with."

Much of the rest of the meeting was focused on some discussion of recent crime in Pasadena.  The day after Jackson's shooting, in the 200 block of Pepper Street.  Police officials in Pasadena and Altadena have both said the crime could have been a retaliation for Jackson's shooting, but they do not evidence to prove it.

Pasadena Police Chief Phil Sanchez also noted that there were two other attempted shootings in the days after, one of them on Summit Avenue.

Lt. Joseph Dempsey, the head detective at the Altadena Sheriff's Station also attended the meeting and spoke briefly.

As Altadena Capt. Steve McLean , Sanchez said that police need witnesses to come forward and tell the police what they saw, or for anybody who thinks they might know something to tell them.

During the question and answer session, Joe Brown, the head of the Pasadena NAACP branch, asked Sanchez about witness protection.

"They’ll have to testify in court so what protection will you offer them?" Brown asked.

Sanchez replied that it's a little too early in the process to think of testimony.  He urged anybody with information to call the station anonymously.  Sometimes, he said, police can use the information to follow a new lead without needing a person to ever identify himself as a witness. 

Anyone with information about the crime can make an anoymous call, email, or text, through the lacrimestoppers.org and detectives will receive it without ever directly contacting the person.

Several other speakers on Thursday also urged anybody with information to come forward and help solve the crime.  Some others also asked Sanchez to tread carefully when dealing with youth in the wake of the shooting, as to not use it as an excuse to harass young people.

Additionally, a woman from the John Muir High School Football Boosters announced a for Jackson's family on Saturday at . 

While most of Jackson's family's talks at the meeting were about Jackson, Costly also said she was a little unhappy that the meeting was being held in Pasadena rather than Altadena.

"When I heard about the meeting I was very upset because I felt like if there was a meeting to take place about my nephew, Altadena has a park, Loma Alta Park, and it should have been there," Costly said.

At the same time, she thanked everybody for coming out and thanked the Pasadena Police for holding the meeting. 

She also recounted some of the horror of Saturday night, as she heard the police helicopters that were on scene at her nephew's shooting.  She said she looked out the window and thought it looked like they were near her family's home--she drove up to check it out and ended up at the crime scene.

But mainly she talked about her nephew, whom she described as extremely outgoing, with a ton of friends.

She also described him as being very religious.

"Each day he'd wake up and say, 'Good morning, God,'" Costly said. "He’d always bless his food and praise God."

She said she imagined that when he got shot, he approached his killers, who spoke to him from inside a car, because he thought they were friends.

"That night when Brandon was on the way home, someone called him to the car and, being the kind of person he was--he loved people--he went over to them," Costly said.