Jacksonville residents gathered Saturday for a candlelight vigil honoring A’mir Houston, a six-year-old child lost to gun violence.<\/p>\n
Houston was killed while in the back of a car in the 4000 block of South Highway 161 on Sunday, May 17.<\/p>\n
Theresa Cook of the Jacksonville Parent Action Coalition said the child\u2019s death is exactly the sort of thing they\u2019re trying to prevent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are we going to work harder to keep our kids safe?\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n
Cook was one of many at the Jacksonville Community Center for Saturday\u2019s vigil.<\/p>\n
She said her reaction to the tragedy was one of sadness.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough is enough,\u201d Cook said. \u201cWhen is it going to stop? This poor baby, this poor family, this mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
One place Houston\u2019s death hit especially hard was the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District (JNPSD).<\/p>\n
Dr. Jeremy Owoh, the district\u2019s superintendent, said Houston had been a student at Jacksonville Elementary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe initial onset, when we first found out- it hit the staff pretty hard,\u201d Owoh said. \u201cAnd then our kindergarteners, his classmates, started to ask where he was, and so it has made for a very tough week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owoh was one of several speakers at Saturday\u2019s vigil.<\/p>\n
He said the event can\u2019t make up for several that Houston will no longer get to attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Thursday, we had the kindergarten promotion,\u201d Owoh said, \u201cAnd for him not to be there, and he should have been there, was pretty traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Community members at the vigil encouraged one another to love their neighbors and put an end to gun violence in the community.<\/p>\n
They also remembered Houston and prayed that his death at the hands of gun violence would be the community\u2019s last.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis principal, his teachers, counselor, they all spoke about how bright he was,\u201d Owoh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust talk with your kids, love on your kids, and please send prayers to this family,\u201d Cook added.<\/p>\n
Two men who were in the car with Houston when he was killed escaped unharmed.<\/p>\n
Police have identified a suspect, 21-year-old Artavius Johnson, and are asking anyone with information on his whereabouts or the crime to contact Jacksonville Police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville residents gathered Saturday for a candlelight vigil honoring A’mir Houston, a six-year-old child lost to gun violence.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3367,23680,116,118,117,120627,120626],"class_list":["post-283848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-gun-violence","tag-houston","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jeremy-owoh","tag-theresa-cook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}