By Kathy Wray Coleman, Publisher, Editor-n-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Greater Cleveland community activists will hold a vigil to remember the Connecticut shooting victims of 20 elementary school children and six adults on Sunday, Dec 16 at 7 pm in the parking lot of WERE 1490 AM radio station, the building at 2510 St Clair Ave in Cleveland that also houses Radio One and WZAK 93.1 FM, said Donna Walker Brown, founder of the Urban Educational Justice League and one of the organizer's of the event. (For more information call Art McKoy at 216-253-4070 or Judy Martin at 216-990-0679)
"We are holding a candlelight vigil by greater Cleveland community activists to send our condolences to the families of those affected by the killings in Newtown, Conn. and the citizens of the town," said Walker Brown "This is particularly devastating to that town because they have never experienced any type of tragedy of this magnitude as a community."
Newtown, Conn became a household name on Friday, Dec 14 when alleged shooter Adama Lanza (pictured), 20, shot his mother divorcee mother in the face multiple times and killed her and then starred in a massacre close to the Newtown home where he and his mother lived, gunning down 20 elementary school first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, including the school principal, a psychiatrist, teachers and a school guidance counselor.
Lanza then turned the gun on himself and died of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He left behind a slew of unanswered questions, and a ferocious debate on gun violence and gun control that promises to linger into the new year.
The shootings have devastated the country, drawing a media frenzy along the lines of the 9/11 attacks.
Art McKoy, founder of Black on Black Crime who along with Community Activists Al Porter produces The Art McKoy University of Common Sense Show that airs on Sunday's from 5 pm to 7 pm on WERE 1490 AM, said that he will discuss the unprecedented shootings tonight and then join his fellow activists after the show at the candlelight vigil.
Other groups that attended the vigil include Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, also a sponsor of the event, Peace in the Hood, and The Imperial Women.
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