When Jayden Lucas was in middle school, he would go out of his way to meet Makayla Myers as they navigated their way on SEPTA from Northeast Philadelphia, where they lived, to Center City. She saw him as just a friend, but as they got older, their relationship blossomed.
Jayden got his first car in his sophomore year, and so their train and bus trips turned into long car rides filled with equally long conversations as they drove through the city.
“Jayden was always motivating me to go after what I wanted in life,” Makayla said. “One day he asked me when I’m going to get my license. I came from a single parent household and so my mom didn’t have time to teach me. Jayden said, ‘I got you.’”
He patiently showed her the controls, taught her how to maneuver the car and encouraged her to continue practicing, but Jayden didn’t get the opportunity to see Makayla become a licensed driver.
Jayden was playing basketball at Roberto Clemente Playground at 18th and Wallace Streets on Sept. 16, 2020 when a group of men started shooting. Jayden was shot in the back and died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He was 18 years old.
Another man, Khallid Henderson, 21, was also killed. (Click here to read Khallid’s obituary.) Two others were injured. No arrests have been made.
Some people say Jayden was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but his loved ones, including his mother, Cynthia Lucas, disagree.
“He was in the right place at the wrong time,” she said. “He had been going to that playground and playing basketball since he was eleven years old.”
Makayla called the playground Jayden’s safe place.
“He died doing what he loved—playing basketball,” she said. “All the times we’ve been to that park, we never thought something like this would happen there.”
After Jayden’s death, Makayla enrolled in driving lessons, but he had prepared her well. She only needed two sessions, then she took her test and passed.
“Learning how to drive is a milestone, and for him to be the person who taught me, it’s very special and I hold it dear to my heart,” she said. “After I got my license I texted his number and said, ‘Thank you, I finally got my license. I love you. We did it.’”
Jayden was born April 3, 2002 to Cynthia and Garyson Lucas. Cynthia was told that she couldn’t have children, so she considered Jayden to be her miracle baby. He was their only child.
He attended St. Martin of Tours Elementary School in Oxford Circle followed by People for People Charter School at Broad and Fairmount, graduating in 2020.
From an early age, Jayden showed that he cared about others. Most of the other boys on the block where he grew up came from single-parent homes, so Jayden told them, “‘My dad is your dad,’” Cynthia said. “He shared his dad with his friends, and that was very sweet and kind of him. My house would be filled with boys.”
Cynthia is originally from Belize, and when they would visit, she’d take Jayden to a home for underprivileged children to teach him gratitude and help him understand how lucky he is. He began asking Cynthia to donate some of his possessions to the children in Belize, which was a testament to his kindness.
Jayden struggled with asthma, and every year in the spring he’d spend a week at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. But that didn’t stop him from playing basketball, his favorite sport. He played in the Police Athletic League and on a neighborhood team, and he was also the captain of the basketball team at People for People Charter School.
He grew up playing at Roberto Clemente Playground, which is a few blocks from his school. In fact, the woman who cleaned the park and picked up lost and found items knew Jayden because he spent so much time there, often leaving his things behind.
Jayden was popular—all the girls wanted to talk to him, and all the boys wanted to be friends with him, Makayla said. He was the type who’d approach a shy kid and take him under his wing.
Makayla describes their relationship as “very, very playful. He was always gentle with me, very sensitive, always asking for hugs.”
He saw the potential in their connection before Makayla did.
“Jayden always used to say that the moment he saw me he liked me, and he would say, ‘One day you’re going to be my wife,’ and he’d call me ‘Makayla Lucas.’ I would nervously laugh and say, ‘What are you talking about? We’re just friends.’”
A few years later, when Makayla was 14, she began to return Jayden’s feelings. From then on, they were a couple, and she thought of him as her soulmate.
“I thought we were going to ruin our relationship by dating, but somehow our relationship kept evolving and growing. We couldn’t really get any closer but somehow we did,” she said. “I definitely think that we would have ended up together. His future was stripped away from him, and I feel like mine was, too.”
In the classroom, Jayden’s best subject was math, and he would tutor other students. After graduating from high school, he and planned to go to college for business management. He thought that eventually he’d like to flip houses, and he also talked about starting a hoodie line.
Jayden was considering his educational options, including the University of Pittsburgh and Chestnut Hill College. But first, he wanted to take a break from schooling for a year, so he got a job working at an Amazon warehouse.
The COVID lockdown was the longest Jayden and Makayla had been apart. Makayla is immunocompromised, too, and she refused to go outside. One night, though, Jayden called her on his way home from the Amazon warehouse and asked her to come outside because he missed her.
“We weren’t supposed to see each other, but we sat outside in his car and talked until 1:30 in the morning,” she recalled. “He wouldn’t let me get out of the car—he’d keep hugging me so I couldn’t move and I noticed he was tearing up.”
Makayla feels comforted by Jayden’s presence around her, and she sees signs that he’s nearby: His birthday numbers on a license plate, a light in her room that doesn’t turn off that’s his favorite color, green.
Cynthia wants people to remember Jayden “as the kind, loving, special person that he was.”
Jayden is laid to rest in Bala Cynwyd.
A reward of up to $20,000 if available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Jayden’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.
Resources are available for people and communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
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