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       In the humid church at a Maryland strip mall, the casket was open.

       Inside was Aaliyah Gonzalez, 18: an avid artist and plant lover who had just graduated from high school, only to be shot and killed at a Baltimore block party in July.

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       “No!” Her mother, Krystal Gonzalez, screamed, banging her hand on the gleaming white box. “I can’t do this!”

       But she and the hundred other mourners gathered at New Life Christian Center in Laurel on Saturday morning had to. They sang and sobbed and praised God. They condemned the gun violence that killed Gonzalez and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi, the second person fatally wounded amid the 30 people shot that night.

       “We are a nation in trouble right now,” Senior Pastor Archie L. Harris said during his sermon. “Where you can be shot simply for ringing the wrong doorbell or pulling into the wrong driveway, or shot for going to the wrong car.”

       “Understand,” he continued. “When people lose their moral compass and respect for the sanctity of human life, chaos will ensue.”

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       Chaos did come in the early hours of July 2, when gunfire erupted during an annual party in the Brooklyn neighborhood of south Baltimore. In videos shared widely on social media, teenagers hopped fences and ran for their lives. In the streets, bullet casings mingled with abandoned plastic red solo cups.

       “Aaliyah’s life was taken away by a heartless, demonic creature,” her grandmother, Beulah Jones, said in a tribute. “I will never understand why God let my granddaughter take a bullet.”

       Police are still investigating one of Baltimore’s worst shootings, which left 28 other people injured. At least three firearms were involved, according to acting police commissioner Richard Worley. On July 7, officers arrested a 17-year-old boy they described as a “person of interest” after executing a search warrant at his home. He has been charged with possession of a handgun by a minor, assault weapon possession, reckless endangerment and having a handgun in a vehicle. The teen has not been charged in connection with homicide, attempted homicide or anything related to the discharge of a firearm.

       Gonzalez was about to spread her wings. She graduated with honors from Glen Burnie High School in June and planned to study sports medicine at Anne Arundel Community College in the fall. She loved to draw and was an artist by blood; her father is a cartoonist, and grandparents from both sides of her family pursued creative passions, including music, sculpting, painting and three-dimensional art. Inside a funeral program left on the church bathroom sink, there was a photo of a young Gonzalez putting pen to page.

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       “She was a modern day Paloma Picasso,” Jones said.

       Gonzalez also had a green thumb, said DeAnna Stalnaker, her high school librarian. During her home room period, she volunteered to water the plants in the library. Sometimes, she’d take clippings home in a cup of water, waiting for them to grow roots so that they could be replanted.

       “That’s what I think killed me,” Stalnaker recalled the day before the funeral. “Someone who loved bringing life into the world being taken out that way.”

       Gonzalez’s family nicknamed her “Sweet Face.” When she smiled, her cheeks got puffy.

       Tributes poured in as people at the church lined up to share their memories.

       “I remember this one time I came home from school and my dog, Noah, was gone,” her little brother said. “I was crying. Aaliyah was the only one there and she made me feel better.”

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       Now, he had to think about the time together they’d lost.

       “I loved her so much,” he said. “I just wish I could have said goodbye before she was gone.”

       Gonzalez’s manager and co-workers from Starbucks also attended the funeral. The company provided free coffee during the service.

       “She wore her green apron proudly,” said Lucious McDaniel III, the vice president of Starbucks’s regional operations.

       After the service, Gonzalez’s family and friends poured out of the church. Before leaving, mourners embraced near the hearse.

       Her casket was closed.

       correction

       A previous version of this article misidentified the people who were embracing near the hearse after the funeral. The article has been corrected.

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