Two saw Key’mydre Anderson hanging out of the car window of a moving car before the 16-year-old crashed onto the road.
They covered the boy with their coats and jackets and prayed as he lay motionless and covered in grass on the floor of Clay Mathis Road, in Mesquite, Texas, on January 22, 2022.
“The witness says he was hanging,” Anderson’s mother Shenika told local WFAA at the time. “My son was holding. He didn’t want to go.”
Anderson was pronounced dead shortly after paramedics rushed him to a local hospital.
Authorities initially believed the victim was involved in a car accident, before noticing a “puncture wound” on his chest.
Then the gravity of the situation became clear: he had been shot and thrown from a moving car, one kilometer from his home.
Four people, including three teenagers and one of their mothers, were charged with his death after investigators obtained information from their TikTok and Instagram activity.
One of the accused in the murder, Johnathan Pyle, 21, went on trial last week in Dallas County on a charge of murder. If convicted, he faces the possibility of life in prison without parole.
‘He was not in danger’
Key’mydre Anderson was just 16 years old when she was shot in the chest and allegedly thrown from a moving car (Facebook)
Anderson was described as a hard-working student at John Horn High School, whose family nicknamed him “Ears”.
The sophomore had an after-school job as a cook at a Sonic Drive-In fast food restaurant to help her single mother buy groceries and support her five siblings.
After finishing his shift at the restaurant on January 22, 2022, Anderson hopped in the shower and met his grandmother Tonya Palmer to buy groceries.
Later that day, between 6:30 pm and 6:45 pm, Anderson got into a black Honda Civic.
Shenika said she had seen this car outside her house, and that her son knew the person inside.
But there was a twist: Anderson had been negotiating with one or more of the suspects and got into the car to buy a gun, authorities said.
“I don’t know why my nephew would buy a gun,” Palmer said at the time to KDFW.
“He wasn’t in any kind of danger or hurt or anything like that. Not that we know.”
A robbery gone wrong
At 7:05 p.m., a witness called 911 in the 2800 block of Clay Mathis Road and told a dispatcher they saw someone fall from a moving vehicle.
Anderson was only wearing a t-shirt and underwear when police arrived at the scene. Her jeans were torn from her body as she was allegedly pushed out of the car.
His death, the Mesquite Police Department announced, cost him more than $250.
Anderson had earned money from his after-school job.
Police said the teenager died during a “failed robbery attempt” after suffering a gunshot wound to the chest.
It is not known if Anderson was shot while inside the vehicle.
“When they agreed to meet, the suspects attempted to rob a person, and our subject was shot during that robbery,” said MPD Captain Stephen Bigg.
TikTok provides proof
Shenika Palmer, the victim’s mother, cried as she spoke to reporters during Anderson’s vigil days after his death (CBS Texas/YouTube)
Police began investigating the night Anderson was shot and killed.
Doorbell video from the surrounding area was reviewed before they searched Anderson’s cellphone and social media history, according to the arrest affidavit.
Evidence was taken from TikTok and Instagram accounts that claimed Pyle, then 19, and Simon Guillen, then 18, conspired to rob Anderson.
The mother of Guillen Crystal, who was 34 years old at the time of the alleged murder, and an unidentified boy who was 15 years old at the time were also arrested after the investigation. All four were charged with murder.
“That’s not a parent,” Palmer, Anderson’s grandmother, said of Crystal. “A parent does not do such things. That is what is called madness, not mother.
It is not clear how Guillen’s mother and the 15-year-old are connected to the case or where the other three accused are in court.
In the days that followed, teddy bears and flowers lined the street where Anderson spent his last moments. The vigil was held at Cornerstone Baptist Church, just two minutes from the deceased’s home.
“The problem in our city is not so much the presence of demons, as it is the absence of the glory of God,” said Mesquite mayor Dan Aleman, who is also a pastor, during the vigil, according to Dallas Morning News.
Anderson was laid to rest on February 2, 2022 at South Cedar Hill Funeral Home.