Friday, November 16, 2007

Little Nyasha

Our neighborhood was rocked last Saturday evening when three young men, between the ages of 18 and 21, entered an apartment and began shooting.

Three people were shot, one of them fatally. A grandmother frantically tried to protect her granddaughter. One of the bullets went through the woman's hand. The bullet stopped when it hit little Nyasha. Little Nyasha had celebrated her first birthday on October 15.

Upon hearing the shots ring out, the baby’s mother, who had been sleeping in the back of the house after a hard-day’s work, ran about 75 yards to a nearby fire station. By the time the paramedics had suited up, the grandmother arrived at the fire station with the infant in her arms. The ambulance took them to the hospital where little Nyasha later died. Nyasha's body was buried earlier today.

All of this happened within 100 yards of the front door of our church. Our neighborhood is becoming plagued with criminal activity. On the same block in April, a police officer was shot during an attempted robbery at a pizzeria.

Please pray for this family as they grieve the loss of this precious child. Please pray for us as we seek to respond to the increasing gang activity and violence in our community.

Peace.

2 comments:

Brian said...

What a sad, sad story. This family and yours be in my thoughts and prayers.

"pastor" Jim Thompson said...

Thanks,

The police have a suspect and are quite certain who the lead gunman was, but after a week of searching are still unable to locate him. The other two guys remain unidentified.

Thanks for your prayers.

PJT