RICHMOND, Va. -- Xavier Liggins and his mother Donna are still processing the violence they witnessed at a high school graduation ceremony in Richmond. Minutes after Liggins and his classmates officially graduated from Huguenor High School on June 6, gunshots were fired outside Altria Theater.
Liggins' classmate and the classmate's stepfather were killed and others were hurt.
“My graduation was supposed to be peaceful," Liggins said.
The shock and fear Liggins experienced outside the theater was a stark contrast to the joy he experienced inside just moments before.
“I felt really amazing that day," he recalled. “I got to see all my principals and vice principals and all my friends in the crowd and hear my mom in the background screaming, 'Xavier.'"
His mother, Donna Liggins, said her son seemed handsome and happy walking across the stage to receive his high school diploma.
"It was really exhilarating to see him," she said.
Minutes later, Xavier and Donna and everyone else in the courtyard in front of the Altria Theater were forced to face the tragic reality of gun violence in our society.
"All of a sudden, shots just started ringing out and they were so loud, very loud," Donna said.
“People were running. People were screaming. I've seen a lot of things that day. But what I did was get down," Xavier said.
“The ground just didn't seem low enough," Donna added. "I wanted the ground to just be even lower or just open up and swallow us in until we could come out. That's how terrifying it was. I was waiting for the bullets to hit.”
Donna said she believed she heard more than 10 gunshots.
"I kept asking myself, when are they going to stop? When are they going to stop?” she said.
When the shooting ended, Donna looked around and witnessed the disturbing aftermath.
"I'm looking on the ground, there's someone convulsing down on the ground," she said. "There was another lady. She was just standing there by herself crying, so I just reached out to her and I held her and rubbed her arms."
After caring for strangers, the Liggins family went to their car.
“We were in survival mode at that moment. We just wanted to get out of there," Donna said. "On the way out of there, we were going to the car, going toward the car, which seemed like it was miles away, like we would never get to the car.”
Xavier learned about the death of his classmate Shawn Jackson on Instagram when they finally made it to their car.
To help process the trauma, Xavier composed a message to his classmates, in part saying:
"You've made it to the finish line and it's time to take a breath before you start a new race," he wrote. "The next chapter will be full of surprises, but I'm sure that you guys would be ready for anything that comes your way. Trust and believe that. If you want to be a better person, do what you got to do in order to become that person."
You can watch Xavier's message by playing the video below.
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