Tates Creek Middle School volley ball team raises money in name of shooting victim

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)-Inside the Tates Creek Middle School Gym, it wasn’t your typical Wednesday night volleyball game. Gun control advocate Tonya Lindsey thanked the crowd for helping support a scholarship fund in her son’s name.

She tells the crowd in the stands, “I’ve decided that someone has to take a stand and I thought it had to start somewhere and it had to start with me.”

Her son, 16-year-old Ezavion Lindsey was set be a junior at the high school when his life was cut short by senseless gun violence in July of 2013 after he was shot by his half brother, 18 year old Eric Trigg.

8th grader on the team Savanna Powell says “It was a really sad time because I just remembered everybody that was on the volleyball team at the time was around the middle school and was there the time that it happened and it was just overwhelming.”

Ever since Tonya’s sister Coach Philnisha Lindsey has led her middle school volleyball team in raising money by selling t-shirts for a scholarship fund in Ezavion’s name.

Coach Lindsey says, “Ezavion used to go here. He played on the basketball team. He was intelligent funny. Ge was just a likeable kid. Ge also attended Tate’s Creek High School where he played basketball as well. So the connection is there. Everybody knows him.”

Ezavion’s mom says she doesn’t think she’ll ever have closure after her son’s death. But she says seeing all these people here helping to raise money for her son’s scholarship fund really helps her heal.

In just three days the team raised five hundred dollars for a graduating high school senior, helping to keep Ezavion’s memory alive.

Tonya Lindsey says, “This is such a positive way to honor him by having someone else pursue his education because that was something unfortunately that he didn’t get to pursue.”

In the past three years the team has raised $2500 for five graduating Tates Creek High School seniors as part of the Ezavion Lindsey Memorial Scholarship Fund.