Jaylen Burns was an “ambitious and bright” industrial technology student looking forward to graduating from Jackson State University and starting his career.
On Sunday, the 21-year-old was shot and killed while trying to break up a fight at an apartment complex on the campus in Mississippi, according to the school and his father.
Jaylen was responsible, ambitious and intelligent, making the dean’s list every year at Jackson State, where he was in his last year, his father Jason Burns told the Sun-Times. Jaylen planned to get a master’s degree.
“He just wanted to be successful, he was gonna be. He was a born leader,” Burns said.
Jaylen was shot at the University Pointe Apartment Complex, the university said in a statement. One of his fraternity brothers got into an argument with a woman who is also a student, and she called three men for help, he said.
The fight didn’t last more than 10 seconds before one of the men pulled a gun and shot Jaylen, his father said. Another student started driving him to the hospital but stopped upon finding a police officer who called an ambulance, Burns said.
Jaylen was responsive in the ambulance, but doctors were unable to save him.
Jaylen graduated from Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills and grew up between Country Club Hills and Richton Park, according to his father. He had the opportunity to attend West Point but chose Jackson State for the experience of attending a historically Black college.
“There’s nobody that ever came in contact with Jaylen that didn’t love him,” the father said. “He was willing to help anybody, ask any questions. He wanted to learn.”
The university said in a statement that Jaylen “was an ambitious and bright young man who believed in being of service … We grieve the tragic loss of his life due to this senseless act of violence.”
Burns said he hopes the person who shot Jaylen is caught or surrenders.
“We never ended a conversation without telling each other that we loved each other,” he said. “I told him I loved him, he told me he loved me. That’s how we always ended our conversations.”
