Family holds candlelight vigil to remember loved one

JACKSON, Tenn. — Friday evening family, friends and neighbors gathered to remember Tavoris Bates at a candlelight vigil.

“He was very loving, and that’s all he wanted to do. He wanted to love on everybody. No matter who you are,” said Bates’s sister Michaela Fowler.

“He meant the world to me, I couldn’t love him anymore than my other four kids,” said Bates’s mother Pamela Bates.

Tavoris Bates was born on November 1. Thursday would have been his 32nd birthday.

Balloons were released in his honor on Middle Street in East Jackson, the same location Bates was killed nearly a year ago.

“His life was took, it was senseless. Senseless,” Pamela said.

According to court documents, Corrion Greer and Billy Moore have both been charged with first degree murder in the death of Bates on November 16, 2018.

“Words can’t explain the feeling that they have caused. I can’t look at a pair of his shoes without crying everyday,” Pamela said.

Family members say Tavoris was the glue that kept the family together.

“All he wanted to do was work and provide and take care of his number one there, that son of his,” Pamela said.

Tavoris’s nine-year-old son Ayden Bates had a message for his father, “Daddy, I love you.”

According to court documents, Moore and Greer are currently being held without bond.