KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Loved ones of a young man killed in an Independence cul-de-sac last week gathered to remember him at Waterfall Park Wednesday night.
On July 23, Matthew Bland-Williams, 26, was on his way to visit a friend, when he pulled up to the 18800 block of E. Wigwam Place. Jackson County prosecutors said Arieous Walton-Merritt, 23, shot and killed him.
"Our young men are dying by the dozens," said Rosilyn Temple, with KC Mothers In Charge. "If we don't step up as a community and do better it's never going to get better."
It's a message that can't be said enough, as Pamela Bland mourns the death of her only son.
"They can't believe it. They can't wrap themselves around it," Bland said. "We don't believe this is real. For him to have been taken out like this."
As a Missouri state representative, Matthew's cousin, Ashley Bland-Manlove, is advocating for policies to reduce gun violence.
"I'm not the only one hurting out here," Bland-Manlove said. "When I call my friends and tell them that I'm hurting, they say, 'I know that pain.'"
It's a point she made during a rally last month in Kansas City, Missouri, that focused on bringing attention to the violence happening within the African-American community.
"We also have to pay attention to – are we loving ourselves? Are we policing ourselves? Are we saying, ‘Hey guys, that's not right and I won't stand for it,'" Bland-Manlove said, "and that's Black love. And that's Black people loving themselves."
Matthew's mother doesn't want more families in the community to grieve like she is.
"A lot of us are hurting inside," she said. "A lot of us have been hurting for a long time. But we need to probably have more programs or something accessible and know that you're not going to be degraded because you reach out for help."
