With a bullet to a son’s upper torso, July 28 became an entirely new and haunting day for an Annapolis pastor and his family.
Together with others who have lost a loved one to gun violence, Bishop Bishop Charles Carroll brought people together Sunday to not only remember the death of his son, Charles Carroll Jr., but also to plea for the community of Annapolis to come forward and help the police find the people who ended the life of his son and many others.
“I often wonder what was going through his mind,” Carroll told a crowd of more than 50 people gathered Sunday across a corner of Bywater Community.
“Was he afraid?”
Carroll not only wore a hat that read SWAG because his son was known for such a presence, but also wore a shirt adorned with the names of other victims of gun violence and the funerals he has attended.
“I am trying to brand something to say no gun violence, we want to get it out into the community not just a shirt with a face on it but more of a brand,” he said.
But not only did Carroll speak on gun violence, but he also advocated for fair treatment to be given to everyone, no matter who they are, he said.
“I believe most of us today desire the same and that is a safe place to live and to be treated fairly in this county when things go the wrong way,” Carroll said.
In particular, Carroll called on Mayor Gavin Buckley, County Executive Steuart Pittman and other officials to help the families who were impacted by gun violence.
“We hurt like other people hurt, we ask that you would treat us like you would treat your own family,” he said.
Before the vigil began, a plane flew over the houses of the neighborhood with a sign that read “#Justice4CJ,” a sign not just for the people in attendance but for anyone who happened to look up and see it waving above.
Through the prayers by other pastors and the speeches by mothers like Beverly Reed, the mother of Charles Carroll Jr. , and Felicia Carroll, the mother of Kendall Green, the pain of losing a child was clear in their faces and in their voices.
“I can remember that day very well because it changed my life forever,” Reed said, holding the microphone close to her. “I remember waking up that morning and just like any day, I got ready for work. It seemed like a perfect day.”
Carroll had an interview with Under Armour and had plans to go to school in the fall, she said. Her son “finally felt like he was given a chance that he worked so hard for,” she went on to say. But that chance was taken and Reed calls her experience a “reality that haunts me everyday.”
Green was shot to death in 2013 by a white Glen Burnie man during a confrontation at the man’s house. Matthew Pinkerton was later exonerated of homicide charges.
For other mothers, like Chevella King who lost her son, Charles King who also was nicknamed CJ, in 2016 to gun violence as well, said she could finally stop crying when talking about her son. King still honors her son, who would have turned 30 this year.
“Every year we have a celebration of life, a party,” she said. “That helps me so I won’t get into a depression because I talk about it. I will be OK.”
Dels. Alice Cain and Shaneka Henson and other public officials attended the vigil. Saturday, the two were among a group of public officials who walked around neighborhoods like Robinwood to knock on doors and have open conversations about the problems that have encroached into these communities.
During the vigil, both offered support for the pastor and others who suffer from the loss of someone close due to gun violence.
They also discussed solutions they are working on that address systematic issues that can lead someone to pick up and gun and use it in a violent manner, said Henson to the crowd.
Some issues that could point to better opportunities were also brought up by Pittman.
“It is an opportunity for the community, like this community, who have been hit by gun violence worse than others, to really address some of the causes of violence,” Pittman said.
“That is education, recreation for kids and jobs — all the economic issues. Now is our time. It is not just talk. We are going to make this happen.”
Carroll is the chair of a initiative started by Pittman, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, a group working on recommendations for the county to address gun violence. The results should be ready later this year, Pittman said.
Sunday, Carroll woke up to another year without someone getting charged for his son’s murder. But Monday, Carroll said he will take a much needed break.
“I have been running a long time and doing a lot of funerals and I decided to just drop everything and just relax my mind,” he said.
In a couple of weeks he will be back to help the community, specifically on those who have been traumatized and are in need of support and counseling services.
