SEATTLE — “He loved fashion and sunglasses," said Allison Gardiner as she looked at old photos of her 14-year-old son, Xavier Gaytan.
It had been weeks since Gardiner last saw her two sons.
“They came up here at the beginning of June to spend the summer with their dad.”
Gardiner said she went to bed early on Sunday because she was picking her kids up from the airport early the next morning. Instead, Gardiner was booking a flight from Phoenix to Seattle.
“When I was at the airport to fly to Washington is really when I was supposed to be at the airport to receive them. We just never got there,” said Gardiner.
Xavier was hit and killed by the Seattle Center Monorail. Security footage showed him on the roof of a building spray painting.
“I think the sad part of this is we can say 'Okay, he made a bad decision,' but most kids get to grow out of that and most kids get to learn from that and he doesn’t have that opportunity,” said Gardiner.
Gardiner said Xavier loved art and had an internship in Seattle screen printing for a clothing brand. She also said she and his dad made the dangers of tagging clear to Xavier.
“He was just a kid living his life. He wasn’t trying to hurt anyone and he didn’t deserve what happened,” said Gardiner.
Now she’s hoping this doesn’t happen again.
“Looking at the way the monorail comes over the corner of the building, it is dangerous and there’s nothing posted to try to detour anybody from that.”
As she’s left with only memories.
“There’s going to be things throughout the rest of my life that I’m going to wonder what would he be doing now,” said Gardiner.
The family has set up a GoFundMe for Xavier's funeral costs.