Saying goodbye to slained Delaware college studentsResidents of Newark turned out to remember the lives of three African Americans in a brutal crime that has shocked a nation and a tri-state area city already used to violence.
When these three bright young people with their lives ahead of them died on August 4, it struck a nerve. Forced to kneel on the ground in a schoolyard before being shot in the back of the head, each funeral on Saturday reveiled, to the surprise of many, joy.
It came in wistful smiles, when the mayor spoke of the young man who admired his dad and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It came in wild applause, when friends talked of the other young man, who had become an ordained minister, or of the young woman, who loved to sing, rap and dance.
Dashon Harvey, 20, Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, became the 58th, 59th and 60th homicides in this city of 240,000 people this year, almost equal to the 63 that had taken place in the same period a year earlier. Their funerals were held one after another at different churches, giving mourners an opportunity to grieve for each of them separately.Cory Booker, the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, pounded a podium yelling “Enough is enough, we need to raise our children!” in between applause at the Metropolitan Baptist Church service for Harvey. Services were also held for Aeriel at New Hope Baptist Church, and Hightower at Grace Temple Baptist Church.
Our prayers continue to be with the family and loved ones.
MSNBC has more on this story, along with video.