Cathy Cossey, from Pontotoc, began crying as she explained why she came to the event with her husband.
“We're here just in memory of our daughter, who was murdered in New Albany,” she said. “It just makes you feel like other people care and they don't forget.”
Cossey’s daughter, Amanda Price, was shot and killed outside her home in 2011. Mississippi has the highest gun mortality rate in the country, according to the CDC. Cossey, who placed an ornament on the tree in memory of Price, says she hopes gun laws will become stricter.
“The laws, if it were stricter, the man that killed our daughter was out on parole,” she said. “And he should not have had a gun, should not have access to one but he did.”
Also at the event is Ishaunna Gully, who held two glass ornaments she’d made in remembrance of friends who were victims of violent crimes.
Gully, who uses an electric wheelchair, explained that she was also a survivor.
“23 years ago, at the tender age of 20, I was shot by my ex-boyfriend and left for dead,” she said. “So that's my story. I'm a survivor.”
The shooting left Gully paralyzed from the waist down.
“An event like this is so important to let victims of crimes know, as well as their loved ones, just to let them know that there are people out there that care about them and there are resources and services so they can, you know, continue to live life and thrive,” she said.
Dressed in a soft pink cardigan with matching hair bow, 10-year old Greenwood resident Ka'Myia Thomas held a framed picture of her father, Larry Casey. Casey was murdered earlier this year.
“I wanted people to know how good of a person my father was,” she said.
Thomas attended the event with her grandmother, Irene Fisher. Fisher said this event was important for both of them.
“Well, this is our first year and it's still an unfortunate event,” she said. “But this event was so important because we want others to remember our loved ones so that they did not die in vain. We grieve with other families here that have unfortunately been victims of gun violence. We've started a mission to be advocates on behalf of families who are victims of gun violence.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch said she hopes the event will help in the recovery and healing process of the victim’s families.
“They've lost their loved ones, they're not going to get them back,” she said. “But it does help them to come. The ones that come year after year, they're able to kind of mentor, to visit, to talk to others that are in their first year of losing somebody. And so I think that's really significant.”
Fitch says the holiday season can be particularly difficult for people who’ve lost a loved one.
“Certainly Christmas is a very emotional time,” she said. “When you've lost a loved one, you really need that comfort, that empowerment. So to come together at Christmas time now, I think it's just so important to them. And you just watch the joy on their faces to be with other families, to know that they're not alone in this journey.”
Fitch says her office has created the Bureau of Victims Assistance to provide help to families. The bureau can assist with victim compensation, crisis intervention and victim advocacy.
