Sohn: Bianca Horton and daughter Zoey demand respect

May 28, 2016 at 1:00 a.m. | Updated May 27, 2016 at 9:49 p.m.

by Pam Sohn

Two-year-old Zoey Duncan hugs her mother Bianca Horton at their apartment in January. One year ago a gunman opened fire in a College Hill Courts apartment, killing a 20-year-old woman and wounding three others, including 1-year-old Zoey Duncan, who barely survived. Zoey was paralyzed from the waist down. A year and half later, Horton, who was expected to testify against the validated gang-member and shooter, was found shot to death.
Two-year-old Zoey Duncan hugs her mother Bianca Horton at their apartment in January. One year ago a gunman opened fire in a College Hill Courts apartment, killing a 20-year-old woman and wounding three others, including 1-year-old Zoey Duncan, who barely survived. Zoey was paralyzed from the waist down. A year and half later, Horton, who was expected to testify against the validated gang-member and shooter, was found shot to death.

Less than two years after a gunman opened fire in a College Hill Courts apartment, paralyzing a 1-year-old girl from the chest down, her mother was found shot to death this week - shortly before she was expected to testify against the gang member charged in her daughter's shooting.

Bianca Horton, 26 and a mother of four, had been a witness in the case against noted gang member Cortez Sims in the Jan. 1, 2015, shooting that wounded two people, left 20-year-old Talitha Bowman dead and paralyzed Horton's daughter Zoey Duncan. Horton was found dead on the side of the road in the 2100 block of Elder Street on the side of Missionary Ridge shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday with multiple bullet casings on the ground beside her.

On Thursday Bishop Kevin Adams and Brainerd High School assistant principal Dr. Charles Mitchell said Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke has agreed to establish a Witness Protection and Victim Assistance Fund to make resources available to protect witnesses from retaliation.

"This cycle of violence is unacceptable," states an email signed by Adams and Mitchell. "Bianca was standing up to stop violence. It's clear both the city, and us the community, must all do more to protect and stand with community members like her. Someone willing to stand up to violence needs protection and we must all find ways to help."

This is one more tragedy in the serial tragedies of ongoing gang violence in Chattanooga.

And for many, Bianca Horton symbolized hope. Hope for a turnaround in a community that has largely refused to talk to police and prosecutors about the violence.

Many residents, including several members of the police department, had come to know Horton and Zoey as they bravely struggled with the challenges of the little girl's paralysis.

"This one is very painful for the police department," said police Chief Fred Fletcher. Mayor Berke, too, released a statement: "This loss of life is a loss to our entire community. Ms. Horton has been through so much. Her family and her daughter deserve our support and justice."

It will take more, of course, than stubborn courage to testify. It will also take Chattanooga's collective backbone to better educate these young men and women who find themselves unable to complete school, get and keep jobs, and live crime-free lives.

Only with that kind of collective bravery can the gang violence of Chattanooga be overcome.

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