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'My baby is gone and I don't know what to feel,' says mother of man killed on MetroBus

"Jaron was a quiet, nice guy. Why did this happen to him? I'm so hurt," Sharon Jackson said.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — "I'm so hurt. I don't know what to think right now," a sobbing Sharon Jackson said.

Jackson is in shock.

"It's hard. It's just so hard to take," she said.

The Olivette mom cannot believe her 34-year-old son, Jaron Jackson-Craig, whom she last saw two days ago, was shot and killed Monday afternoon while riding a MetroBus along Airport Road in Berkeley.

"He's gone for the rest of my life. What mother wants to bury their kid before she goes?" Jackson said.

Police said Anthony Frazier blocked the bus with a car he carjacked earlier that day in Bellefontaine Neighbors. He first shot 37-year-old Jorge Cantor Pinzon because he "looked at him the wrong way."

Witnesses told police the St. Louis County man fired into the bus then got on it and fired more shots.

Jaron Jackson-Craig's mother said he suffered a gunshot wound to his chest and died.

"I was told that bullet went through my baby's chest and out his lower back," his mother said. "Why Jaron? He was quiet, loved music, cooking, sports and kept to himself. He was a good guy."

Jackson said her son was riding the MetroBus home to Olivette from a job interview. Relatives said Jaron was looking forward to starting his new factory position next week.

His mom froze when she saw him in a hospital bed.

"He had that tube still in his mouth," she said. "I just saw my baby lying there, and all I could do is just call his name. I kept saying, 'Jaron! Jaron!' I figured if I said it long enough he'd get up. Somebody just took him away just like that. The last thing he told me on Sunday is that he was going to make me some peanut butter brownies."

"I just want to hurt the person who did this to my brother," said Merisha Wooldridge, Jaron's older sister. "My brother was always peaceful and never confrontational."

"It's just so shocking," said Zella Jackson-Price, Jaron's grieving grandmother and a well-known St. Louis gospel singer.

Hours after he left his grandmother's home, Jaron lost his life.

"He stayed with both me and his mother," Jackson-Price said. "I've lost others, but I haven't experienced losing somebody instantly that you're expecting them home. It's very upsetting."

Frazier was arrested and charged with murder, armed criminal action, robbery and unlawful use of a weapon.

"They need to do something about these guns," Sharon Jackson said. "You're not safe anywhere. You can't go to church, you can't go to a movie, you can't step outside your door. Yeah, they caught the man, but Jaron is gone. That's not going to bring my son back."

A close friend said the other man killed in the incident, Jorge Cantor Pinzon, was also "a nice guy" just trying to make it home to Maryland Heights. He moved to St. Louis a year ago from Colombia, where he previously worked as a bus driver.

Cantor Pinzon had a 15-year-old daughter, and his parents live in Colombia.

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