Da’Mar McKinney, of Youngstown, died February 11 after suffering a gunshot wound, according to a police report. 

Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the shooting and are currently jailed without bond. Ashaud Johnson and Willis Smith, both 18, each pleaded "not guilty" to a murder charge on February 13.

On Sunday, the Youth Peace & Justice Foundation, based out of Uvalde, Texas announced its plans to honor McKinney with a living memorial planted in Mohican-Memorial State Forest in Ashland county. A tree dedicated to McKinney will be planted in the state forest as part of the foundation's Trees for Peace initiative.

According to the foundation, Trees for Peace focuses on "youth victims of gun violence, establishing memorial groves that serve as long-term spaces for reflection and advocacy." Each tree planted as part of the project represents a young life lost, the foundation stated.

“Da’Mar was 17 years old — his future should have been ahead of him,” Daniel Chapin, the founder of the Youth Peace & Justice Foundation said in a statement. “When a young life is taken by violence, the impact reaches beyond one city. Through Trees for Peace, we create a place where communities can remember these children not for how they died, but for the lives they should have been allowed to live.”
 

 

RELATED COVERAGE: