Bobbie Foust – Contributor to Marshall County Daily
Relatives of Antioch Waffle House shooting victim Akilah Dasilva will join Marshall County High School shooting survivors when they protest Oliver North’s appearance in Murray on Friday. The Waffle House shooter, who was
captured the next day, killed Dasilva, a rising Nashville musician/videographer, and three others. North, president of the National Rifle Association, will speak at a 7 p.m. rally sponsored by Marshall and Calloway County Republicans in Lovett Auditorium at Murray State University.
Shaundelle Brooks, Dasilva’s mother, said she wants to bring “words of comfort” to the Marshall County shooting survivors. She is coming to support the students because she wants to help prevent what happened to her son from ever happening to anyone else. “I just want to let (the students) know that I’m in there — in the fight — with them until the end.” she said. “I totally understand how they feel as a parent losing a child to gun violence. My child spoke against gun violence in his music and in life, and for him to lose his life like that, I don’t have a choice but to be part of the fight.” She said her older son, a Waffle House shooting survivor also, along with her daughter, will accompany her to Murray. “We just totally relate and it angers me to know the (things) that are still going on. The NRA and the politicians — shame on them that they would accept money from the NRA — shame on them,” she said. “It’s not just mental issues that are causing these mass murders, it’s the gun laws also.”
Survivors of the Jan. 23 shooting at Marshall County High School say inviting North to address the rally is insensitive to the emotional and physical trauma they still experience. The students — known as Youth Pursuit of Tomorrow — began planning a peaceful, nonpartisan protest last month after learning of North’s planned visit. One student described the pain she felt as “like rubbing salt in the wound.” The 16-year-old Marshall shooter killed Bailey Holt and Preston Cope, both 15, and injured 14 others. Protest planners — ranging from 15 to 17, with guidance from parent advisers, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Pennyroyal Indivisible — also organized the Marshall County/West Kentucky March for Our Lives that attracted 400 people to Calvert City’s Memorial Park on March 24.
“The purpose of our action is to advocate for a more unifying discourse regarding gun violence in our healing community,” said Heather Adams, a parent adviser. “Survivors of the shooting at Marshall County High School
feel the invitation granted to NRA President Oliver North by the Marshall County Republican Party was insensitive and purposefully divisive. Youth Pursuit of Tomorrow seeks to bridge the divide in our community and find
fact-based, community-centered solutions to gun violence that both sides can agree upon.”
Protesters will gather at 4 p.m. in a “free speech zone” at the Curris Center on the MSU campus and hear speeches from Marshall survivors, members of the Desilva family, Hollan Holm, a survivor of the 1997 shooting at Heath High School in McCracken County, the Rev. Darvin A. Adams, Ph.D., of Hopkinsville, and Mark Bryant of Lexington who co-founded the Gun Violence Archive that gathers gun violence statistics not available elsewhere. The 14-year-old Heath shooter — now serving life without parole for 25 years — killed three girls, Nicole Hadley, 14, Jessica James, 17, and Kayce Steger, 15, and wounded five others including Holm.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to stand up with the Marshall students, and I hope the community turns out to show their support as well,” Holm said. He advised the students to “tell their stories as often as they can. Their stories are incredibly powerful and have the ability to reach out to people who wouldn’t listen otherwise.” In learning to live with the Heath shooting’s aftermath, he said “time helps a lot, but one of the best ways to overcome something like that is to do your best to keep it from happening again.”
At 6 p.m. protesters will make a five-minute march to Lovett Auditorium where they will conduct “a silent vigil in remembrance of the thousands who die by gun violence and unsecured firearms each year in America,” said
Pennyroyal Indivisible spokeswoman Megan Meyer. Meyer said the protesters will observe all legal requirements including occupying no more than 36 inches of any sidewalk nor will they block any driveway.
Planners have taken steps to keep the protest peaceful and avert confrontations. Military veteran Gale Greyson, whose family members still suffer emotional distress from the Heath shooting, will coordinate a safety team for protesters and their supporters as well as opponents who might counter protest. Greyson said the team’s primary objectives are “to keep the children safe from tempers that could flare” though he is unaware of any planned counter protests. “Our main purpose in the safety team is to have a safe and secure event, and I’m committed to making that happen,” he said. “We want this to be a healing event and closure for a community that’s still in mourning. I want to make sure that no one is worried (about safety), and that includes anyone who is there to support the children, the
children themselves, parents, teachers or anybody.”
The safety team will be made up of “people who are very calm in temperament, are steady and will stand neutrally between our group and any opposition that might show up,” Greyson said. “The safety team is just a regular precaution. … I don’t anticipate any problems with the children; they are very dedicated to what they are doing, and they are very peaceful. The main purpose of this team is to “keep the respect at a very high level.”
Other national and regional organizations sending supporters to the protest include Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, #NoRA (No Rifle Association) a new group announced on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting,
Survivors Lead, WAVE (Women Against the Violence Epidemic), Black Lives Matter Louisville, Survivors Empowered, Newtown Action Alliance and The Newtown Foundation.