DETROIT – A memorial was held Sunday for victims of gun violence.
It was held by a family that knows that grief too well.
Jada Rankin was 15-years-old when she was shot outside her grandmother’s home in 2016. Her family wants other families who have lost loved ones to gun violence that they are not alone.
Sunday would have been Jada Rankin’s 20th birthday. Instead of mourning, her mother worked to console others in a similar situation.
Tawanna Rankin’s life took a different route when her daughter was fatally shot.
“Even though it took four years, I still never lost hope for getting justice for Jada,” Tawanna Rankin said.
While Jada’s murder was eventually solved, the grief still remained for her loved ones. She used that grief to create a nonprofit organization to help others going through the same thing.
“We’re actually honoring the memory of families who lost children or loved ones to gun violence,” Rankin said.
More than 70 photos of victims of gun violence lined up Sunday at Palmer Park for family members to see their loved ones matter. Rankin said the hardest part is getting over the ages of some of the victims.
“We have babies out here that were three months old,” Rankin said.
Several Detroit City Council members also attended the memorial in hopes of spreading awareness of what these families have to go through.