MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW)-Parents who have lost their children to gun violence will share their stories on Tuesday and beg for change. It’s part of Hillary Clinton’s ‘breaking down barriers forum’ ahead of Saturday’s democratic primary.
We spoke with one mom who said she’s a member of an exclusive club. It’s a club she never thought she’d have to be in.
Kissie Melvin is part of the mothers against violence club. She lost her 14-year-old son Taizaun Dewitt in May. It’s a call Melvin says she never wants to remember but one she’ll never be able to forget. She said that’s the day someone stole her joy and dreams from her. Melvin says she’ll never be the same.
“I tell God when I wake up in the morning if you could just give me the strength to get through this day, I’m not even thinking about tomorrow, I can only think about today. If you give me the strength to get through today to tell my story, you know I will tell the story, I will tell Taizaun’s story. I will advocate for him because that is all that I can do for my child. And I can see him and I can hear him in the background saying yeah mama you tell them.”
Dewitt was one of three teens shot and killed near the Longs community just nine months ago.
Melvin still has a lot of questions. She wants to know who could have killed her son and how could someone do this to her child.
The question that bothers her most is why our community isn’t doing anything about this ongoing problem of gun violence.
“Because it’s not your child. but if you had to sit at the front of the church, and look at the casket and look at the flowers sitting around that casket and looking at it and saying to yourself “that’s my child” inside that pretty white shiny box it would compel you to want to do something. Its not fair he isn’t here.”
Many parents will speak on behalf of their children whose lives ended. It’s part of democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s ‘breaking down barriers’ forum. Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin; Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland; Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner; Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton; and Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis as well as prominent civil rights lawyers, including Benjamin Crump, Gregg Greer, Cannon Lambert, and Billy Murphy will all speak.
That meeting is at the Chesterfield Missionary Baptist church in Longs at 2:30 p.m.