Friends ask for prayers for Whitley Co. community after triple shooting

Many people are still asking 'why' after a shooting in Whitley County took three lives.

"Everyone's just hurting and sad and confused, a lot, a lot of confusion," Destanny Hatfield, a friend of one of the victims, said.

"I met Jessie in third grade. We played sports together."

Deputies said Courtney Taylor shot and killed her husband, Larry, and their two daughters. One of those girls is Jessie Taylor,18. That's who Destanny Hatfield is talking about. She says she lost contact with Jessie through high school but more recently they became close again.

"We did, yeah. We got close again through our mutual friend Kalle."

"It's been rough," Kalle Johnson said about how it's been since the shooting. She calls Jessie one of her best friends.

"They [the Taylor family] were all just really happy people and all funny and just liked to laugh."

That sentence mirrors how both Hatfield and Johnson describe their friend.

"Our friendship was full of laughter. It was a blast. We were always laughing at work and I could always count on her for anything I needed," Hatfield said. "She was an amazing person inside and out. Her smile could light up a room. She was beautiful. She was smart."

They miss her and although this situation doesn't make a whole lot of sense to them, they're trying to stay optimistic saying Jessie wouldn't want it any other way.

"It'll be hard to deal with but I know she would want us to all stay happy and being strong for her and I know she's in a much better place with no worries," Johnson said.

"We're just going to take it one day at a time and pray that God can mend all of us that's hurting from this," Hatfield said.