BALTIMORE — Quinton Bond. Sinthia Grace. Montrell Batteast. Robert Parks.
They're four lives cut short of at least 14 victims of violence in the city just this week alone.
Friday morning, Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters stood united saying 'enough is enough.'
Earlier this week, in just one hour, six people were shot and at least two of them died.
It's the same brazen violence that tie these parents together as they look for solutions to senseless killings across the city.
Their goal is to save loving parents, siblings and other families from getting the same call they received that changed their lives.
“It was my son’s girlfriend and she said 'Ms. Daphney we’re up here at the party and Tariq…we’re waiting for the ambulance.' A reality shocked me and my neighbors because we thought we’d never have to deal with that,” said Daphney Alston.
After 15 years she is still trying to heal from a wound she says is re-opened every time she hears about bloodshed in Baltimore and other mothers of murdered sons and daughters relive those same tragedies that unite them.
“It’s just constantly coming to us by way of cell phones, smart phones. It's just constantly there everyday. There's no healing,” said Alston.
In an effort to create space for their healing along with the rest of the city, they make this plea to young people who account for both victims and perpetrators.
“We’re asking you today to meet us halfway. Please put those guns down and those drugs and stuff. Meet us halfway,” she pleaded.
“Think about what you’re doing. You’re hurting your mother, your father and everyone, even the young kids that don’t even understand what crime is but they can repeat it,” said Latonya Bryant, a mother also mourning.
She and organizers of the We Our Us Movement work to offer services to victims and their families like life coaching, job training, trauma coaching and fatherhood therapy sessions through their Don't Die Young campaign.
“We’ve been out here taking resources to the community. Have a 24 hour stop the beef hotline with no police involvement that can be called 24 hours,” said Mark Cannon.
While they continue the work on their end, they're looking for more help shouldering the work.
“We’ve had 50 something homicides in a month before yet the blood is still…the guns are still ricocheting. It's time for the community to stand up and say we don’t want to live like this any more,” Alston added.
“You have a right to live and so do our children. They had a right to live. You don’t have the power to take someone’s life. We know you’re angry and upset that things don’t look good. You don’t feel good. We are really truly sorry but work with us,” Alston continued.
Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters are Baltimore-based. If you’d like to connect to their Don’t Die Young Initiative, visit: dontdieyoungcares.com
WMAR-2 News is also honoring gun violence victims sharing the human impact these murders are taking.
It's why we have a memorial to each and every victim set up on our website putting faces and names to every victim we have seen in 2022.
