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AHOSKIE – It wasn’t just a march, but more about taking the steps necessary to make Ahoskie a safer place to live, work and feel welcoming to visitors and new businesses.

The Ahoskie Police Department’s Prayers Up – Guns Down March was held Saturday, May 3. The march was from No Man’s Land Park to the all-purpose field adjacent to the Town Gym. There, local pastors led prayers, asking for God’s protection over the town and its citizens and visitors.

The event also featured food, free grocery items, and there were two bouncy houses for children. A basketball tournament was held in the Town Gym.

Ahoskie Police Chief Michele Garrett said she was pleased with the turnout.

“We wanted those families who have lost loved ones to gun violence to feel the love, to know that we have their back and that we support them,” Garrett said.

“We know that the power of prayer changes things,” she added. “We give God all the honor, glory, and praise. I can see a difference in our town, but we’re going to keep pushing, keep moving in the right direction to make Ahoskie and all our local communities a safer place. We want everyone to join us in that effort. Through God’s strength, we will defeat the enemy.”

Ahoskie Mayor Weyling White noted there are some who say they don’t want to come to Ahoskie due to the number of shootings.

“That gives the town a bad rap,” he stressed. “But we want to turn that narrative around. That’s not what Ahoskie is known for. You can come here and enjoy a meal with your family or walk downtown. We have to restore that feeling and starts here today with you, our community, standing unified as one and coming together to take our streets back.”

The mayor said Ahoskie can and will be a safe haven.

“We can live here without fear,” he stated. “We have businesses here that want to thrive. I thank our law enforcement for keeping our streets safe, for decreasing crime, and for helping to bring prosperity back to our community.

“The fight doesn’t start when someone is shot; the real fight is each and every day in our community with violence prevention, working towards a goal of having zero shootings. Prevention takes work each and every day, using events such as this one,” White concluded.

District Court Judge Jamal M. Summey noted that everyday headlines remind us of lives cut short, families shattered, and communities left to grieve.

“When did it become a common thing where a person from one town felt scared to visit someone in another town,” Summey asked. “When did it become common for a shooting to occur at a ballgame? We can’t enjoy ourselves over the threat of violence. And people don’t want to come forward. If you see something, say something as that’s the only way we can stem the tide of violence. You identify the bad actors, the police take them off the street and we prosecute them and put them in jail.”

Judge Summey said there’s no better time than now to turn things around.

“The time for silence is past, the time for action is now,” he said. “You shouldn’t wait until it affects you and your family. Every time we lose a young person we lose a piece of ourselves. That young person could have been a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, a brother, a father, a mother, a sister.

The judge stressed that it sad to see young people involved in such violent acts.

“They have no idea of the ramifications of their actions,” he said. “They have taken someone’s life and also hurt their own family.”

To help stem violence, Summey said it will take common sense gun laws, investing in mental healthcare, addressing systemic poverty, listening to people affected by traumatic events, and holding those who view the violence accountable.

“We need to come together and encourage our youth, giving them recreational alternatives and invest in their education,” he concluded.

District Attorney Kim Gourrier Scott pointed out that she and her assistants are in a reactive role when it comes to gun violence.

“Professionally we do not become involved until someone is charged [with a crime] and are in the courtroom,” she said. “I can assure you that once it reaches the courtroom we are going to fight for the victims of crime. The problem is if we wait to start fighting and fixing our communities when we get into the courtroom, we’ve already lost. We are already behind the eight ball. We’ve got to start making changes and making a difference here. People are scared to say something. We find ourselves having shootings at a basketball court with 50 to 75 people present and nobody saw anything.”

Scott also addressed a major misnomer when it comes to violent crime.

“There’s a misconception that gun violence only affects people in a certain walk of life,” she said. “Some will say those people were in a place they shouldn’t have been. That’s not the case. No one’s life is any less valuable that another person’s life. We have to fight for all lives and when we start taking that upon ourselves to make the determination on whose life is worth fighting for and whose isn’t, then we’re are far outside of God’s will. We are supposed to stand in the gap and pray for our brothers and sisters. If we don’t take a stand, we’re going to continue to show up every year, singing the same sad song with more loved ones lost to gun violence. We need to come back here next year and praise God there were no murders the year before.”

As a law enforcement officer for nearly 25 years, Hertford County Sheriff Dexter Hayes said the one thing he never gets use to is knocking on the door of a family whose son, daughter, or relative had tragically lost their life.

“That’s a knock I’ve unfortunately had to do too many times,” Hayes recalled. “That’s an unforgiving knock that no mother, no father, no grandmother, no auntie should have to hear. It changes their lives.

“It takes a community to help us in law enforcement,” Hayes continued. “It’s more of you than it is of us. Our citizens need to stand up and not allow criminals to have safe havens in our communities. Our citizens need to trust us to do our jobs and so everything we possibly can to keep their communities as safe as possible. We own that job as a oath; our citizens own that job as a community. Stand up together, stand up without fear for retaliation. You shouldn’t feel like a prisoner in your own home.”

Hayes stressed that his job as the sheriff is to listen and react to the citizens he and his staff are sworn to protect.

“If you call me, I’ll listen and try to make sure to put resources in place to do the necessary job to take criminals off the street,” he said.

“Thank the Lord that the number of crimes we were experiencing in Hertford County and Ahoskie is subsiding,” the Sheriff continued. “It’s not as bad as it was, so we can see that prayer is working. When it’s calm like this, now is the time to prepare to build relationships and strengthen our ties within the community, much like we’re doing here today.”

Jimmy Barmer, a Major with the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office, represented his department, saying that law enforcement agencies across the region work well together.

“Criminals don’t have boundaries, they don’t see county lines,” Barmer noted. “We have to stand together to fight crime. If you see something, please say something.”

Barmer spoke of the community spirit he felt at Saturday’s event.

“It’s powerful to see a community come together, not in protest but in unity, not raising our hands in surrender, but in hope,” he said. “Prayers up, guns down is a call to action. It’s a cry for safety in our neighborhoods and a vision for our children to walk home from school without fear. It’s a demand where we wish to invest in our future rather than burying our kids and their futures. We’re here to say enough is enough, to choose courage over silence, and to lift each other up rather than tearing each other down.

“Let’s say no to guns and yes to opportunities for education, mental health resources, investing in community centers and jobs,” Barmer added. “Let’s choose peace over pain, unity over division, and life over loss. Let’s walk together in faith that we can build a safer, stronger, and more compassionate community.”

Chris Langston of North Carolina Juvenile Justice said the main purpose of his job is to educate young people of the consequences of their illegal actions, hopefully steering them in a different direction.

“We can’t do this job alone, so it’s very important to have events such as the one today to get out the message,” he stated. “We want to prevent our children from maturing into adult offenders. Thank you for coming out on a beautiful day in an effort to make a difference.”

Demurio Pillmon, a School Resource Officer for the Bertie Sheriff’s Office, shared his thoughts on how to build relationships with young people.

“I have so many young men come into my office, they literally cry on my shoulder,” he shared. “I ask them where is their emotional pain coming from and 99.9 percent tell me they are upset because they don’t have a father in their lives. A lot of them want that, how to feel the love and guidance of a father.”

Pillmon noted that due to the lack of male role model in their lives, many young men resort to joining gangs.

“They do so because they feel accepted,” he said. “That leads me to build relationships with them so that they feel wanted, feel loved.”