Xavier Gaytan 14 year old teen boy killed by Seattle monorail while spray painting building he had climbed on to. The teen’s mom, Allison Gardner defends her son’s graffiti as art.
‘No bad or ill can come to me…’ A 14 year old teen boy was hit and killed by a monorail while spray-painting the side of a building in Seattle, according to reports.
Xavier Gayton, 14, was visiting Washington State from Arizona and had climbed on to the roof of a downtown building which was next to the monorail tracks.
He was struck and killed July 30, according to Seattle police.
Graffiti as an art form
The monorail – which runs along Fifth Avenue between Seattle Center to the Westlake Center Downtown – had been moving at speeds of 45mph.
The elevated rail is 30 feet off the ground in its highest spots, officials noted on the train’s website.
‘The news was so deeply painful and shocking, it’s not even something I can really describe,’ Gaytan’s mother,Allison Gardner, who lives in Arizona told Fox 10 Phoenix. ‘He had a passion and a desire to do something. And unfortunately, he really just didn’t think it through.’
Gaytan was born in Washington but moved with his mother to Arizona nine years ago. He was in town visiting family and friends for the summer.
Told Gardner via KOMO News: ‘He wasn’t out to hurt anybody. He was just doing something that he was passionate about.’
That passion for Xavier Gayton took the form of illegally tagging buildings, buses and other structures.
The teen’s mom described her son as a fun, creative and talented artist. A GoFundMe she created collected nearly $9,000 as of Saturday.
‘Even though he was warned many times of the dangers and illegality of doing graffiti on the street, like most teenagers, I don’t think he fully grasped the reality or the danger of that,’ the boy’s mother said.
Adding, ‘[Graffiti] is an art form, and it is one that I respect.’
The boy’s mom declined to say whether Gayton was inspired by the need to rebel, cause havoc, what drove him to risk his life to deface public property and whether the teen had been steered in other facets of ‘creating art.’
There are R.I.P. now tags on the building next to where 14-year-old Xavier Gayton died after getting hit by the monorail Sunday night. @komonews pic.twitter.com/GGYp8r3HnT
— Denise Whitaker🏃♀️ (@deniseonKOMO) August 4, 2023
Street art
The Seattle Fire Department attempted life-saving measures but could not save Gaytan. Video footage obtained by officers showed the teen doing the graffiti.
‘Safety is our number one priority; we take this event very seriously and are fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigation of this incident,’ the Seattle Center Monorail told the Seattle Times in a statement on Monday.
Several Rest In Peace ‘ANOM’ – the alias Gaytan used for his unlicensed exploits – tags remained near the site of his death, as him mom told KOMO he believed her son was not alone when he was struck.
To prevent another similar death, Gardner said she plans to encourage communities to offer opportunities for street artists like her late son to have a safe outlet. But then again, that too may defy the appeal of street art – too often defined by the exhilaration of the illegal, the danger and risk and public scorn.
