a sergeant in the Marine Corps. He deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. Now, 27 and still on active duty, he is stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He is a member of The Military Order of the Purple Heart and a graduate of The Veterans Writing Project. Follow him on Twitter at @thomasjbrennan.DENVER -- Treaujalaune Lornes was like many 14-year-old boys. He loved basketball, his family and his friends. Family members say one of those friends is accused of killing him, apparently over a pair of shoes.

Lornes' sister, Tyquajanna, told Denver7 that neither she, her son, nor anyone else in the family got to say goodbye to her little brother.

"My son loved him so much," she said, wiping away her tears. "He was sweet. He was a baby."

Tyquajana said "Trey" dreamed of playing professional basketball.

"He wanted to have so much money (that) he could take care of everybody, his mom, all his brothers and me, and his little sister," she said.

That dream was cut short when the 14-year-old was gunned down in a house on South Monaco Parkway, near Cook