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Members of the Asbury Park chapter of the Stop the Violence Action Committee paid their respects to parents who had lost children to violence in the city at a memorial banquet Saturday night.

The committee announced an Asbury Park chapter during a rally held in September. Stop the Violence has chapters throughout the state, including Camden and Trenton, according to chapter organizer Rev. Kevin Nunn. Nunn is a minister at Spirit of Truth World Vision Outreach Center and vice president of the Asbury Park-Neptune Ministerial Alliance. Nunn and the committee organized the banquet to gather support from the community and show parents who had lost loved ones to violence that they still had the support and encouragement of the community.

“Every loss is felt by the greater community,” said Nunn.

In addition to the banquet, the committee launched a door-to-door campaign to address individual and community issues shortly after the rally. They are also planning a positive rap contest.

The Parents Against Community Killings memorial banquet brought together pastors, ministers, community leaders, activists and residents under one roof at the Martin Luther King Presbyterian Church in Neptune to honor parents and their loved ones from Asbury Park and Long Branch who had experienced a loss due to violence.

“It was both a heartbreaking and inspirational evening,” said Councilwoman Amy Quinn.

Penny Dees daughter, Quiana Dees, was shot and left in the woods 21 years ago. She was in seventh grade at the time. Police have not yet found the culprit, but Dees has not given up hope for justice, she said.

“The child is supposed to bury the parent—we’re not supposed to bury our children,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the day justice arrives.”

Saahron and Myshee Jones lost their 27-year old son, Saahron Jr., eight years ago when Jersey City residents robbed his apartment, he said. Jones, Sr. and his son were watching a Giants game when Jones Jr. left to go to his own apartment to take a shower and was shot once in the back of his head.

“It’s been eight years and I’m still not over it,” Saahron Jones, Sr., said.

Members of Geneva Kelly’s family were in attendance although she could not be. Kelly lost two sons to violence, Donte Kelly earlier this year and Jakeema Kelly in 2006. Crystal Thompson, a cousin, thinks about the deaths every day and questions why they have not yet found those responsible, she said.

“The pain doesn’t go away,” said Jennie Covington, grandmother of the two.

With tears in her eyes, Lavon Walker, whose son Tyrell Howard was gunned down on Washington Avenue in August, thanked those who attended the dinner for their love and support. Walker’s friends visit her house on a daily basis and thank her for being able to have someone “talk to them, not at them,” she said.

“Everybody’s got their role to play but we work towards the same common goal [to end violence],” said Shawn Williams, who works with the Spirit of Truth.

Adrienne Anderson, from Long Branch, lost her son 23-year-old Adrian in September. He was shot in the back 5 times; police recently charged an individual Thursday in connection with the shooting. She still seeks justice for those who may have been accomplice.

Retired Asbury Park Police Lt. George Corbin, a member of the Stop the Violence Action Committee, and Pastor Derinzer Johnson of St. Stephen AME Zion Church in Asbury Park, who had organized an event earlier Saturday morning for community stakeholders to join together and begin to comprehensively address the issue of growing violence in the city, also attended the event.

“This is phenomenal,” said Corbin. “There is so much love in this room.”

[Photo at top: From left to right, Crystal Thompson, Jennie Covington, Penny Dees, Lavon Walker, Myshee Jones, Saahron Jones and Rev. Kevin Nunn.]

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