Life-sized photographs of 17-year-old Moshe Rogers flashed brightly on a screen at Aurora Central Catholic on Thursday night. It was almost like he was in the room.
From prom tuxes to basketball jerseys, the young man’s life played out in pictures. But Rogers’ life story was shattered in February 1995, when the popular student at Aurora Central Catholic was shot and killed in Aurora after he was mistaken for a gang member.
“It changed everything,” said Rogers’ childhood friend Chad Peterson.
The shocking death of his best friend not only stunned Peterson, but the entire Aurora community.
“Everyone thought of him as a great athlete, but he was an even greater guy,” Peterson said on Thursday as hundreds of people gathered at Aurora Central Catholic to remember Rogers 20 years after his death.
“Twenty years have gone by. Two decades, yet the pain and memories are very real and vivid in our hearts and our minds,” said Rogers’ mother, Mary Rogers. “He was a precious, precious moment in each of our lives. We remember his laugh, his smile, his sportsmanship, his athletic ability, his love for people, his love for life, for family, and above all, his love for God.”
According to the Rev. Dan Haas, who co-founded the Prayer Coalition for Reconciliation, Rogers’ murder was the wake-up call the city needed as gang violence spiraled out of control in the mid-1990s. Haas said residents began to realize that street violence can impact even the most innocent among us.
Rogers was driving home from a basketball game with his younger brother on the evening he was shot. He had stopped on the side of the road to pick up a friend when the shots rang out.
“There I was holding my brother as he was slipping away,” Rogers’ brother Marchel said. “This was my best friend, my hero, my brother. I felt my life coming undone. So badly I wanted to pick up these pieces and put them back together, but I couldn’t.”
Moshe Rogers is remembered every year when February rolls around, Peterson said.
“Every February Facebook will start blowing up with memories of Moshe,” Peterson said.
On Thursday, hundreds turned up to celebrate a life lost too soon.
“Back then, it appeared that sin and violence had won, death had won,” said the Rev. Jerry Leake of St. Joseph’s Parish. “Yet we gather here tonight in memory of Moshe to say that death and sin was not victorious that night…Sin and death can be conquered. We are people of hope.”
At the front of the crowded room on Thursday sat Rogers’ retired Aurora Central Catholic Chargers’ basketball jersey. His family took to the microphone with tears in their eyes to thank the crowd that turned up to remember the teen with the bright eyes and big smile.
“Moshe would say himself, ‘Let’s stop the crime,'” said James Rogers, Moshe’s father. “Violence puts wounds in the family’s heart. Thank all of you for supporting this. I ask that you continue to pray for our family and continue to pray for one another. “