Mourners in the urban war torn streets of Chicago gathered Friday to say goodbye to 7-year-old Heaven Sutton, reports the Chicago Tribune.com.
As previously reported by NewsOne.com, Heaven was shot in the back on June 27 as gunfire rang out up the street from her mother’s candy stand. A stand, said her distraught mother Ashake Banks, that was set up to keep neighborhood children safe from surrounding gang violence.
An estimated thousand people crowded into St. Mark International Christian Church to celebrate the life of a little girl who brought so much joy in so little time.
“She used to make us all laugh,” remembered her distraught 12-year-old brother Diamante Demetrious.
St Mark’s pastor Rev. Andre Thurmon Sr. used Heaven’s funeral service as a call to end Chicago violence.
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“Too many innocent lives are being taken and stolen,” Thurmon said. “Somebody’s life is going to be changed today. Somebody’s going to put down that gun; somebody is going to walk away from a gang.”
“Heaven is speaking through heaven,” Thurmon continued. “Enough of the young people dying.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson also spoke out against the culture of violence that set the scene of the murder of a 7-year-old girl.
As previously reported by NewsOne.com, reported gang-member Jerrell Dorsey, 26, has been charged with Heaven’s murder and held without bond.
A 21-year-old man, who was allegedly with Dorsey when he opened fire, was stopped and questioned by police Wednesday morning. According to the Tribune, he is not in custody and the investigation is ongoing.
