Funeral services are planned for Monday for Aaron Lowe, a West Mesquite High School graduate who went on to play at the University of Utah and was shot and killed last Saturday night.
Services for Lowe, 21, will be at 1 p.m. at the Family Cathedral of Praise church in Mesquite, his family said.
Lowe’s older brother, Chris Jackson, spoke to NBC 5 about Lowe.
"He never got in trouble,” Jackson said. “He was one of the most respectful children you would meet."
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Lowe, a triplet, set himself apart at a young age, his brother said.
"He discovered football at around seven,” Jackson said. “His first team was the little Chiefs."
He went on to play at West Mesquite High School and continued his passion at the University of Utah.
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"He was so caught up with the game of football. Not just playing. He was a student of the game,” Jackson said.
A year later, a friend and high school teammate, Ty Jordan, followed him to Utah and they played together again.
Then, tragedy.
Jordan, 19, died in an accidental shooting on Christmas day last year.
Lowe was heartbroken.
"He was devastated,” Jackson said. “He went through a period of depression."
In a tribute, Lowe took his friend's number -- 22 -- and remembered him other ways too.
"On his forearm, he has Ty's name and the number 22 tattooed on him,” Jackson said.
Then, Saturday night, the unthinkable happened.
Lowe had gone to an after-game party in Salt Lake City when he himself was shot and killed.
"It's an incredible loss,” Jackson said.
Police arrested a stranger with a long criminal record who showed up at the party uninvited.
Lowe's family is still struggling to understand.
"You would not expect someone who was so good -- he was so good, so perfect in many respects -- that something like that would happen,” Jackson said.
Asked about two college football teammates from the same hometown dying in less than a year in separate incidents, Jackson said, “As much as I'm not at a place to accept it right now, I do believe those things were ordered by God."
Lowe's brother blames a few things.
"First of all there's a lack of understanding on how do we properly resolve conflicts and then it's just the misguidance of guns being so prevalent in our society,” he said.
Jackson, an elementary school principal in Louisiana, says he's learned his own hard lesson about life.
"Almost on a daily basis, I tell kids that if you're good, if you go to school, if you do the right things and you stay out of trouble, then you'll have a good life,” he said. “I think I'm wrong in saying that."
