Honoring a Lost Son: Guns to Gardens Forges a Mother’s Grief into Advocacy
Story by Giles Clasen and Jamie Miller
Photos by Giles Clasen
TASHA COOPER LOST HER SON JAYDEN HOYLE IN 2022. VOLUNTEERING WITH GUNS TO GARDENS HAS HELPED HER PROCESS HER GRIEF AND TAKE ACTION AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE.
Tasha Cooper worried like any parent would when her son, Jayden Hoyle, didn’t come home from school on April 8, 2022. But it was Friday and Cooper assumed her son was safe with friends.
When the clock ticked to 9 pm, Cooper’s worry turned to panic. It was out of character for him to be out past that time without calling to reassure his mother he was okay.
“I called his friends, I called the hospitals, I even called the police myself trying to see if they knew anything. And they didn’t tell me anything. I kept looking at my phone, waiting for it to ring,” Cooper said.
Desperate, Cooper got in her car and started driving, tracing the path she thought Jayden might have taken home from school. In the distance, she saw blue and red police lights flashing on the Central Park bridge.
But Cooper didn’t drive towards the police lights. It was not the route Jayden would have taken home from school. It seemed impossible that the pulsing lights were connected to her son, but still, they left her feeling uneasy.
“I kept looking at those lights, thinking, ‘I hope that’s not for Jayden. I hope that’s not him.’ But at the same time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was,” Copper said.
Jayden was a student at Denver Green School in Northfield and an active member of People’s Presbyterian Church, where he was preparing for his Confirmation. He was outgoing and athletic, playing football, basketball, and soccer.
“He was a great kid, and I know he was only going to be greater as he got older,” Cooper said.
He had three older sisters, whom Cooper credits for influencing Jayden’s high emotional intelligence. He never hesitated to extend a helping hand and always steered clear of Denver community violence, frequently mourning those friends he lost to it. Instead, Jayden spent his days striving to be a good friend, brother, son, and grandson.
“He was very respectful…if he saw someone carrying groceries, he would go help them. He would take his clothes and shoes to friends at school who did not have any. He would get snacks and give them to people who he knew needed them more than he did,” Cooper said.
When morning broke without word from Jayden, she began calling friends, family, and hospitals once more to locate her son. It was not until mid-morning that Cooper’s world began to crack open with a call from Jayden’s sister; she had heard that Jayden and his friend Adrian Foster, 14, were killed the night before.
The morning continued in a blurred panic. Cooper remembers dialing 911 and frantically begging for nformation, but they had none. She was en route to the Aurora jail when she got a call from the coroner’s office.
“They said, ‘I think we have your son, Cashier [one of Jayden’s friends],’” Cooper said. “I said, ‘I have talked to Cashier, and he is alive, and he is not my son.’ They told me they needed me to identify the body.”
Instead of allowing Cooper to enter the facility, the representative had her wait on hold for 45 minutes before sending an image to her phone.
“He looked like he was just sleeping. Like if I had peaked in his room and he was asleep. I lost it, and his dad lost it, right there in the middle of Alameda. They couldn’t tell me what had happened, just that he had passed,” said Cooper.
Nearly three years later, the what-ifs from that Friday night still haunt her.
“I keep going over that night in my head, wishing I had done something different, wishing I had been the one to pick him up. If I had just been able to speak with him, I wonder if things would have turned out differently,” Cooper said.
Seeking Justice, Understanding, and Action
Police eventually arrested and charged a 15-year-old with Jayden’s murder. Since then, he has been charged with additional unrelated crimes, including the killing of a pregnant woman and involvement in a shootout with Aurora Police Department (APD) officers in November 2023. During the court proceedings, Cooper noticed the aggressive, defiant demeanor of the suspect’s mother, which resulted in a surprising shift in Cooper’s perspective.
“I had empathy for him,” she said. “[I decided] I have to forgive him. I don’t have a choice. It’s how I was raised.”
But forgiveness did not come easy, nor did it diminish the weight of her grief. Cooper turned to therapy and joined a support group for women who have lost children to violence.
“For months, I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t get out of bed,” she said. “Meeting other mothers who understood what I was going through helped me start to heal.”
One of Jayden’s former teachers reached out with the idea to start a nonprofit in his honor. This idea formed Jayden’s Place, an organization dedicated to supporting at-risk youth and keeping them on the right track. The nonprofit provides mentorship, organizes community events, and offers resources for children in underserved areas.
“I give them everything that I can’t give my son anymore,” Cooper said.
Healing through Advocacy
Cooper’s advocacy also led her to an unusual outlet to heal: a grassroots movement called Guns to Gardens. Inspired by the biblical vision of beating swords into plowshares, the Guns to Gardens movement completes gun buybacks, or as the organization prefers to call them, safe surrender events. The destroyed gun parts are then sent to blacksmiths to transform the guns into garden tools.
The grassroots movement was founded by Colorado resident Mike Martin following the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in December 2012. For Martin, whose wife is a first-grade teacher, the Sandy Hook tragedy was a call to action.
“When we think of those impacted by gun violence, it’s not just that person who was harmed and their family and close friends. It’s also the community; the ripple effect is huge,” Martin said.
In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, Martin launched Raw Tools and the Guns to Gardens movement. Raw Tools is a nonprofit dedicated to transforming instruments of violence into tools for peace.
“For us, this was the way forward, taking something destructive and reshaping it into something that gives life,” Martin said.
From its humble beginnings in Colorado Springs, Martin’s work has become a national movement with Guns to Garden surrender events in many major cities. Martin’s work with Raw Tools is deeply shaped by his Mennonite faith, which is rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the call to nonviolence.
He sees his work not just as activism, but as a spiritual practice, embodying the belief that redemption is always possible — not just for people, but for the very objects that cause harm.
“Jesus didn’t tell his followers to fight — he told Peter to put away his sword,” Martin explains. “If we truly believe in transformation, we have to live like it’s possible.”
Through Guns to Gardens, Martin helps people disarm not only their homes but also their hearts, offering a tangible way to choose peace over fear.
Cooper has participated in multiple Guns to Garden events and said she finds the surrender events and Martin’s message empowering.
“The whole process of cutting through a gun is just therapeutic,” she said. “And I want to do anything in my power to keep guns out of the hands of irresponsible people.”
Martin estimates that Guns to Garden events have helped transform thousands of unwanted guns into garden tools. He learned to blacksmith in his dad’s garage so he could be part of every step of the transformative work. He invites those impacted by gun violence to take part in the blacksmithing.
“When they come into the shop, we don’t just hand them something pre-made. They pick up the hammer, they feel the heat of the forge, they watch something destructive turn into something life-giving in real-time. And it’s emotional,” Martin said.
Martin also hauls a forge, anvil, tools, and gun parts to workshops around the country so participants can experience the transformation firsthand.
To support their work, Raw Tools’ website sells the garden tools that Martin and other blacksmiths forge. Still, Martin knows this isn’t a practical solution to confronting America’s estimated 400 million guns.
“We don’t expect to solve the entire issue of gun violence with this program, but what we do expect is to plant seeds — seeds of change, seeds of hope, seeds of a different way forward. And just like in a garden, those seeds take time to grow,” Martin said.
Martin knows his work has political undertones. But he tries to avoid getting into political discussions because he doesn’t think further division will solve the problem. He is proud that the Guns to Gardens volunteer base is composed of individuals who work for major gun manufacturers and police departments, as well as activists fighting for strict gun regulations at both the state and federal levels.
“We live in such a polarized time, and people assume that conversations about guns are always going to be heated debates. But in my experience, most people — whether they own guns or not — just want their families to be safe. If we start from that common ground, maybe we can have real conversations,” Martin said.
Deacon Clarence McDavid and One Church’s Role in Safe Surrender Events
MCDAVID SAID THE GUNS TO GARDENS SAFE SURRENDER EVENTS ARE IMPORTANT ACTIONS COMMUNITIES CAN TAKE WHEN THE PROBLEM FEELS IMPOSSIBLE TO TACKLE.
Most safe surrender events are held at churches. Cars often snake around the block as individuals wait to receive a gift card to a supermarket, ranging from $50 to $150, in exchange for surrendering their gun. One safe surrender event can cost more than $25,000. Raw Tools funds the events through community and church donations.
At Cure d’Ars Catholic Church in Denver, Deacon Clarence McDavid has helped host multiple Guns to Gardens events and has another safe surrender scheduled for July 19.
“When I first heard about Guns to Gardens, I got so excited because it is scripturally based,” he said. “Jesus is clear — we are about giving life, not taking life.”
McDavid worked with victims of gun violence as both a deacon and previously as the Director of the Crime Victim Bureau with the Colorado Springs Police Department. He said words feel trite when families are torn by gun violence.
“How do you minister to someone through that? You meet them where they are. You hold their hand. You listen. It is the only thing you can do,” McDavid said.
McDavid’s Park Hill church has long served one of the Denver neighborhoods most heavily affected by gun and gang violence.
“One of the things our members are asking us is, ‘What are you doing [about gun violence]? Where is your voice in all of this?’ They are expecting that we will have a voice, that the church must respond to the violence,” McDavid said.
McDavid said the Guns to Gardens safe surrender events are important actions communities can take when the problem feels impossible to tackle.
“We collected 35 weapons at one event, and four of them were assault weapons. When you see the pile of gun barrels, it really hits you. Each one represents a potential tragedy that has been prevented,” McDavid said.
For Martin and the team at Raw Tools, this work is about changing the narrative and offering alternatives.
“We’re not here to take away all guns. We’re here to provide a choice. A choice to disarm. A choice to transform. A choice to heal,” Martin said.
Martin is hopeful that the Guns to Gardens message that transformation and change can bring healing will continue to reach more people.
“Ten years ago, I don’t know if I would have felt as hopeful,” he said. “But now, I see more people willing to think differently, willing to take action.”
As Cooper moves forward, she remains dedicated to keeping Jayden’s memory alive. She recently moved into a new home. Cooper made the decision to pay $500 more each month to rent a larger home, one with an extra bedroom for Jayden. His room is carefully set up displaying his football helmet, clothes, and a book that his classmates made.
“I really got to keep his room until I’m ready,” she said. “I wanted a space where I could go, sit, and just be with him.”
She now awaits trial, which has been rescheduled to May 21 — the day after what would have been Jayden’s 17th birthday.
Cooper continues to participate in as many Guns to Garden surrender events as possible. She hopes that her story, and her work with Guns to Gardens, will inspire change.
“I don’t want any other parent to feel this pain,” she said. “If I can stop just one family from going through what I’ve been through, it’s worth it.”