Oct. 23, 2023 11:45a
(WGTD)---The Racine Interfaith Coalition held back-to-back prayer vigils late Sunday afternoon for the city’s two most-recent homicide victims.
The first took place in front of a home on Victory Ave where a man allegedly shot his step-brother-in-law in a dispute over a probate court matter. The second took place at College Ave. and 11th St. where a man allegedly shot his brother.
Tammy Hayward is co-president of the Coalition., which has been holding vigils in the aftermaths of non-vehicular homicides for over 25 years in an effort to promote ways to reduce violence. The two murders highlighted Sunday are the city’s 20th and 21st of the year. "Every story I hear, everything I read...it just hurts more and more," Hayward said. "It gets very old. Yet it's important for us to do it. Someone has to acknowledge what's happening," she said.
The gathering on Victory Ave. was twice the size of the one at College and 11th. It included the alderperson of the area, Renee Kelly.
Speakers noted that the majority of this year’s homicides in Racine are domestic violence-related.
The conversation brainstormed ways of trying to encourage more people to actively work to reduce violence.
-0-