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Stop the Violence group holds vigil
Posted: 03.21.2013 at 11:39 PM
Colby Gallagher

Colby Gallagher joined the Fox 31 News Team in April 2012 as a general assignment reporter. Colby hails from Sewell, New Jersey and is an avid Philly sports fan.

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The vigil held by the Stop the Violence Movement brought out lots of concerned parents like Denetrace Laster who says she now feels unsafe living inside her own South Albany home.

 / Colby Gallagher
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ALBANY, GA --
A group of local citizens gathered Thursday evening in memory of those who passed away during recent violent acts.

In that group was Loraine Barnes and her 2-year-old granddaughter Kaisyn Davis, who is now without a father after he was killed during Sunday's drive-by.

"She really doesn't know him and she's not going to know him growing up. Only from what we tell her about her father, and it's not going to be negative things, it's not going to be negative things. I want her to be positive and still know that her father loved her," said Barnes.

The vigil held by the Stop the Violence Movement brought out lots of concerned parents like Denetrace Laster who says she now feels unsafe living inside her own South Albany home.

"I really do, very unsafe. I be scared to sleep at night, I walk all night."

In order to ease the fears of the public and make the streets safer, the group says the days of waiting for troubled citizens to ask for help is over.

"You can have all of the meetings in the world, but if they don't come to the meetings, we have to take the meetings to them," said South and East Albany Community Leader Willie George Ross.

By going to the neighborhood of Sunday's shooting, organizers and law enforcement leaders say they want the public to realize the ripple effect a murder has.

"I hope that people come to a realization that when one life is destroyed, many people are affected and some of them never recover, they have to live with it. It's a great trauma, it's a great problem," said Stop the Violence Chair Bishop Frederick Williams.

Williams’ sister was murdered three years ago and says he has seen the affect it's had on his family and wants to prevent more families from feeling that pain. He believes the vigil was just the beginning and the anti-violence message will spread across the city to make a real difference.

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