{"id":201004,"date":"2026-07-11T06:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T06:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/201004\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T06:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T06:52:08","slug":"community-lights-candles-to-honor-teen-killed-in-lebanon-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/201004\/","title":{"rendered":"Community lights candles to honor teen killed in Lebanon shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. (LEX News) \u2014 Hundreds of people gathered Friday evening at the Miller Park Amphitheatre in Campbellsville to honor 18-year-old Jaron Johnson, a high school student from Taylor County who was shot and killed the week before.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson was a star athlete at his high school, a follower in Christ, and an activist.<\/p>\n<p>His mother, Joshalyn Gholston, described her son in the simplest of terms. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s amazing. He&#8217;s angelic. He&#8217;s positive like to know him is to love him,&#8221; Joshalyn said.<\/p>\n<p>Police say <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lex18.com\/news\/covering-kentucky\/marion-county-sheriffs-office-investigating-shooting-death-of-campbellsville-teen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Johnson was shot and killed on Sunday, July 5<\/a>, following a fight that broke out in the 1200 block of Penick Road in Lebanon. One person has been arrested in connection to his death.<\/p>\n<p>Those close to Johnson gathered Friday, lighting candles in his honor, singing songs of praise, and sharing stories of love.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Jaron&#8217;s heart was so big because he loved everybody in a different way, and he loved everybody for who they were,&#8221; Joshalyn said.<\/p>\n<p>His father, John Gholston, remembered his son&#8217;s character both on and off the field.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Jaron was academically great too. Everything he touched,&#8221; John said.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson&#8217;s uncle, who fights back against gun violence, says his nephew was a blessing to everyone and his life was cut short from a senseless act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me a long time to figure out how I\u2019m gonna talk about this one. You know I do this a lot, but this one\u2019s a little different. I\u2019m just trying to wrap my head around it. This one\u2019s a nightmare, and I\u2019m trying to wake up. But at the same time I really want justice for my nephew and all those involved,&#8221; said Antaeus Simmons.<\/p>\n<p>John also had a message for others in the wake of his son&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Guns don&#8217;t make you tough. If you have to have that to make you feel like you are more than you are, then you&#8217;ve got to work on yourself,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Joshalyn said no parent should have to experience what her family is going through.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t wish it on any parent. Like this is just it&#8217;s a different feeling, it&#8217;s a different feeling and I would never wish this on anyone,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Free bibles and journals were handed out at the vigil in honor of Johnson&#8217;s faith and fellowship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. (LEX News) \u2014 Hundreds of people gathered Friday evening at the Miller Park Amphitheatre in Campbellsville&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[59187,59188,1384,93,10232,59189,59190,9922,59191],"class_list":["post-201004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-campbellsville","tag-jaron-johnson","tag-kentucky","tag-lebanon","tag-lexington","tag-marion-county","tag-penick-road","tag-shooting","tag-taylor-county"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116900026255369609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}