On what would have been graduation day, mother mourns daughter killed in apparent murder-suicide
Students from Douglas Byrd High School in Fayetteville graduated Wednesday without one of their classmates.
On May 24, they lost classmate Tatiana Haywood in what police say was a murder-suicide at her home on Carlos Avenue. Haywood was 18.
This week, WRAL News spoke with Haywood’s mother, Shirley Simeon, about her daughter’s life and tragic death.
On Wednesday at the graduation ceremony at Crown Coliseum, there was a chair with flowers and ribbons in honor of Haywood.
“Let us take a moment to remember Tatiana Haywood,” said school principal Kenneth Williams. “We have a chair in her honor and would like to take a moment to remember all that she accomplished during her time with us.”
Fayetteville police said Nasir Scott shot Haywood and then turned the weapon on himself.
"I don't know if he was stalking her or not, or if he was mad because she had truly cut him off and was moving on with her life that morning when he came in and did what he did," Simeon said.
Simeon believes the incident was the result of her daughter breaking off a relationship with Scott months ago.
“I was ok with them being friends, but in February, when I found out that they were doing more than being friends, I told Tatiana and him that they had to leave each other alone so that my baby could graduate high school and she had a future,” Simeon said.
Haywood was set to attend Fayetteville Technical Community College.
"She was [going] to study architecture,” Simeon said of her late daughter. “She loved fashion and design, but she also loved the idea of building a space.”
Simeon said the family is getting through the grieving process one day at a time.
"Tatiana was beautiful," Simeon said. "She was loving. She was forgiving. She was fashionable and she was fun, extra fun."
Also, Simeon has set up a GoFundMe in her daughter’s honor to cover funeral expenses.
