MESQUITE, Texas — An 83-second tribute on a Facebook page is photographic proof of how much Ty Jordan was loved.
Deirdre Espinoza took each of the photos on the West Mesquite High School booster club page.
“When he smiled, you smiled,” Deirdre Espinoza said.
A smile Espinoza knows well.
“There’s always favorite kids I love taking photos of and he was definitely one of them," Espinoza said.
Photos she never thought would be a remembrance for a vibrant 19-year old college freshman.
Jordan died early Saturday in Denton. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner says the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The address listed on the page is the same one Denton police responded to late Christmas night near the University of North Texas campus for a shooting.
By late Monday, Denton police had not made a report publicly available but said a preliminary investigation indicated Jordan's death appeared to be an accidental, self-inflicted shooting.
Jordan had just completed his first semester at the University of Utah and was named Pac-12's offensive freshman of the year in 2020.
Jeff Neill coached Jordan at West Mesquite High School.
“We love Ty, and we’re going to miss him,” Neill said. “The thing we loved about Ty wasn’t the speed or the athletic ability and all those type of things, it was his heart and how big it was.”
The University of Utah's athletic department tweeted out a statement and photo of Jordan Saturday morning.
"Ty's personality and smile were infectious and he made a huge impact on our program in the short time he was with us," head football coach Kyle Whittingham said in a written statement.
According to the Utes' website, Jordan also was selected to the All-Pac-12 second-team in 2020, had five career games with four starts, and was the first freshman to have three-straight 100-yard rushing games since 1995.