BALTIMORE — On Friday, Baltimore City officials, along with the Curtis Bay community, gathered to dedicate a street to slain Baltimore Police Officer Keona Holley.
The officer was shot and killed last December in the line of duty.
Joining Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Police Commissioner Michael Harris for the ceremony was Holley's family. They gathered on the corner of Hazel Street and Pennington Avenue, the same intersection where she was shot.
"She was Baltimore," Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said. "Everything that we want in a police officer is what she exhibited and for us to be at this sacred ground right now where she worked, where she served, where she sacrificed is not only fitting but it’s appropriate. It’s right."
Friday's ceremony was also a call to action, a call to once again Baltimore's ongoing violence.
"I will not lose my sister and not fight for this city," said Holley's sister Lawanda Sykes. "If you have somebody that you're housing in your house that has a gun, that’s not supposed to have it, let’s get rid of it. Let’s start doing something about it now."
"We're not the only one's suffering," said Holley's daughter Ky'jonna Holley. "Everybody’s family that is lost to gun violence, stabbing, any type of violence that is unwarranted, it matters! My mother took the job to protect and serve."
As WMAR 2 News has reported, Holley was seated in her patrol car on Pennington Avenue when she was shot around 1:30 a.m. on December 16. She was rushed to the hospital, where she remained in the ICU until she was taken off life support a week later.
The two men suspected in Holley's shooting and a second killing the same morning were taken into custody later that day. They are awaiting trial on murder and other charges in both killings.
Holley, who was a mother of four, was laid to rest in January.
On Friday, those who loved and supported her showed up for the street renaming.
"She loved this community," said her best friend Nakia Abdul-Hamid. "She loved being here. She loved interacting with people. She loves the kids… she made you feel like everything was going to be Okay. Your day could be going bad, but you'd talk to her, and everything was going to be okay. I'm hopefully everything will be okay on this street renamed in her honor."
