People prayed over the family of a slain child at McComb First Baptist Church on Wednesday night as pastors from throughout the area pleaded for a united front to bring peace to a community rattled by violence.
Pastor Rick Edmonds welcomed preachers into his pulpit, acknowledging that after the death of first-grader Oterious Marks, “for once, Black, white, young, old, male and female,” everyone was in agreement that something must be done to stop gun violence.
Marks, 6, and four others were shot in a drive-by shooting at Central Park just before 5 p.m. Sunday. Four people — all under the age of 20 — have been charged with capital murder and aggravated assault in the case and ordered held without bond.
The Rev. Gary Brumfield of Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Magnolia recalled the biblical story of David mourning his son and told Marks’ family that their grief was shared by others.
“Thank you for this moment for allowing us to come together as one, no big I’s, no little U’s,” he said. “We want to honor this family that’s on the front row right now. We can’t fix everything, but we can love you, pray for you.”
Pastor J.R. McBeth said that although it took a tragedy, such a service, with people of different races, backgrounds and denominations worshipping together, has been needed.
“This is something that I have longed for, to be on a platform with other pastors from other communities to come together,” he said.
McComb School District Superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis, whose office is on the same block as the park where the shooting took place, recalled what Emmett Till’s mother said following his death in the Mississippi Delta in 1955. She lived in Chicago, and before her son was killed, she thought the racial strife taking place in Mississippi was a Southern problem. “But now that my son has been killed down South, I realize now that it should have been everybody’s problem,” he said.
“Sunday when I got the call that it had happened, that quote came to my mind,” Ellis said. “Like Emmett Till’s mother, that was their problem. That was a problem on Summit Street, that was a problem in Burglund, that was a problem in Community Parks.”
The violence reached critical mass when it happened in the middle of the city — in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon in a park full of children, no less, he said.
Ellis recalled comforting Marks’ mother Kyoukius Washington before the family released ballons in memory of the boy on Monday and placed stuffed animals and other memorials near the blood stain on the basketball court where he was shot.
“I saw bloodshed, I saw blood,” he said. “I heard this mother talking to the news station and saying, ‘Why? Why did my son have to be the sacrificial lamb?’ ”
Ellis said he hopes people don’t have short memories of the tragedy and move on without actually solving anything or demanding change.
“We can never forget. We can never forget what Jesus did for us. And what I’m telling you tonight is let’s not forget the sacrifice that this little boy made to bring us all together here today.”
“We cannot go back to our houses and in two weeks, three weeks, we go back to living the way we were living,” he said. “This is all of our problem. This is not a Black or white problem … This is a tragedy all the way around. This is a community problem.”
Pastor Chris Huffman likewise called the issue of gun violence a burden for the community to collectively shoulder and solve.
“We quit valuing lives,” he said. “It’s not just a Pike County situation, it’s not just a Hinds County situation, it’s not just a Mississippi situation. That could’ve been my 6-year-old, my 10-year-old, my 3-year-old.”
Huffman said he hoped the spirit of unity lasts well after the service.
“We’re stronger together, we’re better together, but we’re weaker apart,” he said.
The Rev. Don Johnson also noted that the shooting brought the reality of violence to all corners of the city.
“When deaths start happening on the other side of the tracks it affects all of us,” he said.
Johnson urged people to show compassion and support, not only to Marks’ family, but to anyone in need.
“Be able to hug someone else when they’re going through pain because it may be their day today, but it may be your day tomorrow,” he said.
