14-year-old boy killed in overnight tornado in Fultondale
Preliminary damage survey indicates EF-3 tornado Possible tornado damage at Comfort Inn and Suites in Fultondale, Ala. (Source: Alicia Elliott) By WBRC Staff | January 26, 2021 at 1:11 AM EST - Updated January 28 at 1:27 PM
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC) - Jefferson County Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin confirmed Tuesday a 14-year-old boy, a 9th grader, was killed in the tornado in Fultondale Monday night.
The boy was identified by the Jefferson County Coroner Tuesday afternoon as Elliott Hernandez, a student at Fultondale High School.
“Out of respect for the family we don’t want to release too much information at this particular time,” said Dr. Gonsoulin. “But we do know that it’s a 14-year-old student in the 9th grade. Which, again, adds to the saddest of the situation.”
‘They deserve justice’: Families seek answers as Jefferson County ends 2020 with 74 unsolved murders
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
His mother, Nedra Smith, thinks about her first-born, just 15-years-old, every day and every night.
She thinks about how she was just beginning to know what it felt like to have a full-fledged teenager with his driver’s license just around the corner.
She thinks about him when his five younger siblings want to know why they can’t see him.
She thinks about how much help he was as the man of the family, and how that burden now rests on her 13-year-old.
“I don’t sleep because my mind is constantly racing, trying to put together the who and the why,’ Smith said. “I just don’t get what was so bad, so horrible for you to still have life and my child doesn’t. It’s like one of those movies where you are left hanging. I don’t have an ending.”