Vigil for killed teen draws large crowd
BOYNTON BEACH — Teal balloons filled the sky Friday evening as a community turned out en masse to mourn a young life lost to gun violence.
A crowd of nearly 200 gathered for a vigil held in remembrance of 17-year-old Johnny Harp, who was found shot to death in a parked car in Boynton Beach on Wednesday morning less than a half-mile from his home.
For many of those gathered at Harp’s home Friday night, the grief was overwhelming.
As the balloons ascended, people could be seen sobbing, shaking and collapsing to the pavement. “Fly high, Johnny,” they said. “I can’t take it,” a woman said, tears streaming down her face, walking away from the group.
Others crouched in the driveway, spelling out the teen’s name with candles. Then, the crowd formed a large circle. One by one, they placed more candles around a picture of Harp, standing in front of a school locker and wearing a collared shirt. Three girls left the circle and leaned against a fence, crying into each other’s arms.
A woman wearing a black headband turned to the young boys in the crowd.
“Y’all can’t be beefin’,” she said through tears. “Please, just do better. Please.”
“Amen,” a man said.
“Praise the lord, hallelujah, I’m free,” one attendee sang. “He’s no longer bound, no more chains holding me.”
For the family, the loss is hard
to process.
“What is there to say?” said Oliver Razz, Harp’s godfather. “He was special. He had a light in him that made others feel welcome.”
“A great kid,” Sharelle Harp said of her late nephew. “I always hugged him and told him I loved him every day.”
She was wearing a white shirt with her nephew’s face on it. Also on the shirt was the face of Harp’s father, who died when Harp was a toddler. Above the two pictures were two words: “Fly high.”
The 17-year-old, who loved football, was a running back at Boynton Beach High School. He liked to sit in his garage for hours, laughing and talking about girls with his cousin, Jarvis Clark. He ended every phone call with his aunts the same way: “I love you.”
Rochelle Melendez, a loc al preacher, offered words of prayer to the crowd.
“In the midst of the storm, we need you God,” she said through a microphone. “We need you.”
Harp’s body was found when authorities responded to reports of gunfire shortly before 1 a.m. on the 100 block of Arthur Court, off North Seacrest Boulevard and north of Gateway Boulevard.
No arrests have been made, and police have not commented on a motive or suspect in the case in fear of jeopardizing their investigation, but said they are reviewing nearby surveillance footage. Harp was the second confirmed homicide in Boynton Beach during 2018 and the 54th in Palm Beach County, according to a Palm Beach Post online database.