Community mourns after 16-year-old Red Creek student dies in crash

ARCADIA, NY (WHAM) -- As they placed the cross in the ground, even in the pouring rain, Deven Jackson's friends say this is something they had to do.

Deven's a really good kid," says Sierrah Marlow, one of his friends. "Really outgoing. Like a brother to all of us."

Jackson was in his junior year at Red Creek High School.

State Police say he was riding in a car driven by 17-year-old Jeremy Taylor Monday night. Police say Taylor was heading west on Blue Cut Road around 11:30 p.m. when the car went off the road, overturned, and knocked over a telephone pole and sign. Taylor suffered minor injuries; Jackson died at the scene.

"I don't want to believe it. I still don't think it's true," says Marlow. "This morning, we all kind of talked about it and decided we needed to be together as a group today."

On Tuesday, Jackson's friends returned to the crash site to pay their respects.

"We knew it was here," says Lindsay Hickman, another friend. "We thought we'd come down here and do something for him."

They set up the cross and hugged one another. They say they're hopeful his legacy will live on.

The driver of the vehicle was not charged, but the investigation into how the car went off the road is still ongoing.