Together We Heal walk honors lives lost to gun violence

LORAIN — Dozens of people marched down the sidewalk from United Way of Greater Lorain County to Veterans Park on Wednesday to honor lives lost in the county to gun violence. Some carried signs, others wore shirts with the names and pictures of loved ones lost as part of the inaugural Together We Heal memorial walk. When the group got to Veterans Park, attendees read the names of those killed in the past decade, including organizer Cassandra Marr's son, KeShawnDrae Carter. Carter, 19, was shot and killed July 2, 2017, in a drive-by shooting near West 22nd Street and Beech Avenue. He and his girlfriend were coming back from church. Often, Marr, the continuum of care coordinator for United Way, leads a walk along her son's final path on the anniversary of his murder. But this year, she opened it up to everyone in the community who lost someone to gun violence in the county. "We do this not just for him, but for all of the victims and the families, so we can come together in a common space," Marr said. "Through this journey of grief, what I've learned is as a resident of Lorain County, we're all connected in some way." She said she cannot be mad at someone because they are related to the man who killed her son. "We say stop the violence — that would be ideal — but if we can't stop the violence, what I realized is that we can come together and help heal those wounds," she said. Lori Flanigan, of Elyria, whose son Jordan, 24, was shot and killed at the Midview Crossing apartments on Oct. 27, 2022, stood on the amphitheater at Veterans Park and said she turned her pain into something positive. She started a business, Jordan's Angels LLC, to sell T-shirts. The money from those sales goes toward free coats, hats and gloves for children in her son's memory. Imam Paul Hasan, a longtime community activist, said young Black men have declared war on themselves — they look like each other, listen to the same music, wear the same clothes and still kill one another. "We don't have a good understanding of where we come from and where have we been and the shoulders we stand upon," Hasan said. "To me, until we begin to break these chains of the internet, cellphone, TikTok, all these things have control over our young people, especially our young men. … We have to break the chains of all kind of things that have got us in the mess that we're in." Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley said one of the largest problems with guns in Lorain is legal guns being stolen and used in crimes. He noted Lorain police offer free gun locks to firearm owners so even if it is stolen from their home or vehicle, it will be unusable. "The other thing is parents, we've got to be a little bit more proactive," he said. "... We're going to start holding parents responsible if their kids go out there, 15, 16 years old, with a gun and shoot somebody or kill somebody." Bradley highlighted those "doing the work" to reduce gun violence, like Hasan and Damien Calvert with Save Our Streets, a pilot program that funds violence interrupters to respond to shootings in Lorain and Elyria and help develop relationships to curb potential incidents before they start. The program faces a potential budget shortfall under President Donald Trump, Bradley said, and he hopes to find other funding sources to keep the project going in Lorain. As a longtime defense attorney prior to his political career, Bradley recognized many of the names read from the list of victims Wednesday. Like Marr, he recognized there are two sides to the issue. "We've got the families that have to lose a loved one," he said. "But we also have the families that have to lose their loved one to prison … for the rest of their life. The two sides have to come together." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.