Tears still fall from Amy Smartt’s face one year after a gunshot to the head took the life of her 20-year old daughter Keiara Patton.
Smartt said Thursday that she needs to talk with others who identify with her pain.
“Maybe I can have a friend to talk to and listen to, because when you talk to people that’s not going through it they say hurtful stuff like, ‘Oh you’re going to get better.'”
Smartt cried among dozens of mothers and family members who also lost loved ones to violence during a gathering at Chattanooga’s first “Healing From Both Sides” meeting.
“I don’t never see how losing someone that you gave birth to and spent 20 years with, loving and raising and getting prepared to come out in the world, I don’t see how that’s going to get better,” Smartt said.
Pastors, police officers and other parents of victims stood around her, hugged her and rubbed her shoulder as she talked.
James Moreland, president of the Avondale Neighborhood Association, called the group together after having a dream about the need to support the family members of those who died as a result of violence and the families of those who committed the crimes. The group would first bond to heal each other and then work to deter further violence by going out in the community to give a first-hand account of how violence affects so many people.
At 3 a.m. one day, Moreland called community members, including Chattanooga Public Safety Coordinator Paul Smith, businessman Ervin Rainey, retired police detective Napoleon “Donut” Williams and Police Capt. Edwin McPherson, to share his idea. They also called Brenda Johnson, the mother of 20-year-old Micheal Johnson who died five years ago after gunfire struck him while he sat on a porch across from East Lake Courts.
“We want to get mothers and let them know that they have not been forgotten,” Johnson said Thursday evening.
Johnson encouraged her friend Sebrina Roberson to join the group.
Renee Meyer, center, aunt of shooting victim Malik Blackstock, holds Blackstock’s cousin Jamiyah Odum as they sit with his grandparents John, left, and Wanda Flagg during the “Healing from Both Sides” dinner Thursday, June 4, 2015, at Cafe Le Mont in Chattanooga, to connect family members of violence victims and the families of perpetrators. Roberson’s daughter, Talitha Bowman, died in January after Cortez Sims allegedly fired two shots at her. One of the shots hit her collar bone, causing it to explode and hit her heart, Roberson said.
Sims also shot a 1-year old child and two other adults during the same shooting, Roberson said during the meeting.
Another woman from the audience jumped up to hug her as she spoke through tears, sometimes waving her arms. Johnson who stood beside her hugged her, too.
“This group helps me,” Roberson said at the end of her testimony.
Most people present were the mothers of victims to violence, but the group wasn’t complete.
Moreland hopes more family members of those who committed crimes will come in the future.
Smartt’s mother, Glenda Hill, continued to rub Smartt’s back as she cried.
“I hope for peace and her comfort,” Hill said.
Norma Johnson, grandmother of Michael Johnson, sat with her grandchildren who wore “Rest In Peace” T-shirts in honor of their relative who was killed.
“If it stops this violence, my grandson would not have got shot in vain,” she said.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.