At downtown Fort Worth park, demonstrators gather at vigil for Uvalde shooting victims
Most of the people at the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth on Sunday were filled with usual summer weekend joy. In a corner of the park nearby, others were choked publicly with grief.
Demonstrators mourned group homicides at a elementary school last week in Uvalde and at a grocery store the week before in New York. They gathered for a vigil. Some of the people at the edge of the gathering stopped to see what was going on as they passed through.
“How long must we mourn? How long must we continue to have multiple graves?” Sharon Wright-Jackson of Duncanville asked. “These children were supposed to start their summer vacation. Instead we have a funeral procession.”
“They are digging graves in Uvalde for these children,” Wright-Jackson said.
As water rushed in the distance, the mourners lighted candles.
The names and ages of the victims of both shootings were read from lists.
“Protect children, not guns,” they chanted.
Melinda Hamilton, whose daughter was shot to death in 2018 and whose grandson was slain in 2020, spoke of her pain.
Hamilton runs a nonprofit called Mothers Of Murdered Angels, which assists and advocates for families that have experienced the loss of a child through gun violence.
“So this is very ... it’s very hard for me,” she said.
President Joe Biden sought on Sunday to comfort Uvalde, whose residents are grieving the killings of 19 elementary school pupils and two teachers at the hands of a lone gunman, the Associated Press reported.
This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 11:14 PM.
