Jamonni Bland’s Mother: ‘When is it Going to Stop?’
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The message Thursday was clear at a vigil for 17-year-old Jomanni Bland: End the senseless violence.
Bland was one of four who were shot last Friday outside the Zodiac Lounge in downtown Macon.
“It’s time out for it,” says Pastor Roland Stroud of Power Life Church. “We’ve got to work together as a community. It’s not just the police department by itself. It’s got to be the preachers, the community. This has to be a team effort to try to get these young people while they’re still able to get a hold of.”
Close to 100 people filled the space near the Zodiac Lounge to remember Bland.
“He was funny and nice,” says Jomanni’s 17-year-old friend, Tyshonia Simmons. “He liked to joke around. He was nice. He was a good boy. He wasn’t no bad person at all.”
Time and time again, Stroud told the teenagers in attendance to be their brothers’ keeper and to put an end to the killing.
“Even if I just get one person to get the thought on their mind that enough is enough, I feel like the mission has been accomplished,” says Stroud.
Jammoni’s mother agrees.
“When is it going to stop?” asks Jackie Sanders. “How many of our young children have to die at young ages like this? When is it going to stop?”
Simmons says she’s just left asking why.
“Every time you turn around, it’s a shooting, or this and that,” she says. “Folks don’t have to live their life like that. Just put the guns away.”
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