'My baby is gone': Mother of 19-year-old killed by wrong-way driver speaks

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Kassandra Anderson fought back tears as she clutched the Mother's Day flowers gifted to her by her 19-year-old son, Tyler.

"Happy Mother's Day, Mama," Anderson read. "I love you with everything in me."

Receiving that card and those flowers is the last memory she has with her son.

"Had I known that this was going to be the last time I seen him, I wouldn't have let him go," Anderson said. "My heart is broke."

Tyler Anderson was killed early Wednesday morning after he was hit by a wrong-way driver on I-43 southbound near Chase Avenue. His mother says he was on the way to a friend's house.

"He was a funny kid. Loving kid," Anderson said about her son. "He had a big heart."

His death leaves a hole in his mother's heart. She says she is still in shock over a detective with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office coming to her door around 4 a.m. Wednesday to inform her that her son had been killed in the crash.

"Disbelief. It's devastating," Anderson explained. "Heartbroken."

It's a pain that Carolyn Hall is all too familiar with.

"It took me right back to the day I lost my daughter," Hall said. "The pain will never go away."

Hall's daughter, Rhode Molina, was hit and killed by a wrong-way driver in June of 2020 near the same location where Anderson was killed Wednesday.

"She was a beautiful young woman," Hall said about her daughter. "She had ambitions in life, and her life was cut short because of somebody else's actions."

Hall says she's still seeking justice in her daughter's death. A bench warrant was issued by a judge for the driver in the case, Jerry Jay Anderson, Jr., after he failed to appear in court in December of last year.

She shared a message of support for the family and friends of Tyler Anderson.

"I just want to let them know that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what happened to your child," Hall said. "You're learning how to live life with a broken heart. That's what I'm learning to do."

"I love him. I'm going to miss him, and these people need to slow down," Kassandra Anderson said. "Slow down and drive careful, because now I don't have my baby. My baby is gone."

MCSO is continuing to investigate Wednesday morning's crash.