STRONGSVILLE, Ohio — It's been two weeks since Strongsville teen Mackenzie Shirilla was sentenced to prison for murder for intentionally killing her two passengers by crashing a car into a building at 100 miles per hour.
The passenger in the back seat was her friend 19-year-old Davion Flanagan, a former running back for the Strongsville Mustangs football team. In his memory, his family has started a scholarship fund in hopes of helping others complete the dreams that Davion never got to.
His parents Jaime and Scott Flanagan started the fund on Friday through GoFundMe. They tell 3News Davion's dream was to become a barber and someday start his own barber shop, and the 19-year-old was actually in the process of applying for barber school when he was killed in that car crash in July 2022.
Even though Davion could never fulfill his dream, his family has just started a scholarship fund to help others go to barber school.
"Making something hopeful and hopefully beautiful, potentially, out of the ashes of this whole awful situation," Jaime said. "We miss our son terribly, but we can't have him back. This is just a way for us to try to shine some hope."
His father said Davion would be honored by this.
"He is someone who befriended anyone," he said. "It didn't matter that he was a star running back. He would befriend anyone he came across. It was always in his heart to just give love to people. So, the fact that we're doing a scholarship in his honor and helping people further themselves in life, he would be so blown away by that. He would love it."