PATERSON — Wearing orange T-shirts emblazoned with the word “Enough,” about 100 teens held an anti-gun violence event at a Paterson high school on Monday to pay tribute to an honor student who was fatally shot last year.

Many of the participants were friends and classmates of 18-year-old Robert Cuadra, who got caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout while he was bringing groceries home to his family in January 2022.

“We're going to live our best life for him,” said Christopher Gomez, a friend of Cuadra, who was drawing a chalk mural with the words “End Gun Violence” outside Paterson’s STEAM High School.

Students and STEAM graduates marched around the circumference of the school’s athletic field and at the end of each lap they passed through an arch with balloon letters that spelled Cuadra’s first name.

Cuadra’s classmate, Yerlin Gomez, started the anti-violence march last year. In 2023, guidance counselor Melissa Wright and English teacher Patricia Spiliotopoulo carried on the tradition, in an effort to raise money scholarships in Cuadra’s memory and to make a donation to national non-profit group, Everytown for Gun Safety. In addition to T-shirt sales, the walk's organizers accepted donations on its fundraising website.

Spiliotopoulos, who taught Cuadra in his senior year, remembered reading his eerily foreboding college essay about inner-city violence and his wish to someday relocate his family to a safer environment.

“And this ended up happening to him,” Spiliotopoulos said. “Hopefully, through this event we can honor what he was working toward in some small way.”

One of last year’s STEAM graduates, Justin Alva, returned to the school for Monday’s event. Cuadra and Alva, both teenagers from Paterson, had made a pact to attend college together.

But Alva ended up going through his freshman year of college at Montclair State University — where Cuadra had secured a four-year scholarship — without his friend.

“We clicked instantly,” said Alva, who is studying accounting. “Everyone else thought we knew each other our whole life.”

The trio accused of killing Cuadra — Jaquin Williams, 19, Jahed Jones, 19, and Kahaz Heron, 18 — were teenagers themselves and seemed to epitomize the divergent paths young people from Paterson can take in life.

“We know guns are everywhere. But we want our students to be better, to want better,” said Kelli White, principal at STEAM High School, who still gets choked up when she remembers Cuadra’s potential to rise above his circumstances. “That’s all he talked about — getting to Montclair State and going to school.”

'I cry every night': Mom seeks justice year after Paterson teen's shooting

Authorities have said there were six people involved in the crime. But the other suspects have not been arrested.

Cuadra’s mother, Ivernis Santiago, said her son’s open case has prevented her from finding closure.

“The cops got to do their jobs,” Santiago told Paterson Press. “If they don’t, how will I find justice?”

Santiago said Cuadra’s five siblings are still struggling with the death of their brother, especially his six-year-old autistic brother.

“The little one keeps asking when his brother’s coming home,” Santiago said. “He doesn’t understand he’s not coming home.”

Darren Tobia is a contributing writer for Paterson Press.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ Robert Cuadra anti-gun violence march