Peace rally planned in response to Wilmington gun violence

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - This weekend a rally will urge people in Wilmington to lift their hands in prayer and put weapons down.

Organizers are planning a rally and March in response to gun violence leading to twenty homicides in Wilmington this year of which six remain unsolved.

" I just think that this generation now the level of respect is almost nonexistent,” Bostic said. “There’s no respect for life, there’s no respect of person. And I see that getting worse if somethings not done.”

Yolanda Bostic says that nothing will change until witnesses speak up and families reunite with common values and with good role models influencing younger folks’ lives, although she understands why some fear retaliation.

“We’re just going to go out and we’re going to pray and we’re going to speak and we’re going to try and reach as many people as we can and let them know that until you start speaking up, this is going to keep happening,” she said.

She’s intimately aware of how gun violence can affect families as it has affected her own.

The rally for peace will begin Saturday at noon at the 1898 Memorial in downtown Wilmington.

“We’re really looking forward to it, to try to do something positive to see if we put our collective together we can exact some change,” she said.

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