Longs community gathers to talk about murdered teens

Children’s tiny hands clasped signs that read “Stop the killing” and “For our youth.” Preachers bellowed about community responsibility. A woman sang “Jesus is the answer” as fingers interlaced as prayers went up for those recently gunned down in Horry County.

Scores of people, undeterred by the possibility of rain, crowded around Popular Park’s picnic shelter for a peace rally Saturday afternoon.

They came for one reason: to talk about the violence that has gripped Horry County – and specifically the Longs region – over the last few months.

Since March 22, five people have been killed in Longs area shootings. The community’s most recent victim was Taizaun Dewitt, a student at North Myrtle Beach Middle School.

“That devastated me for a 14-year-old to lose his life,” said Wallace Evans Jr., one of the pastors who organized the event. “It really did something in my heart. It told me that I have to do something different.”

For more than two hours, pastors, police and other leaders talked about what more should be done. Some discussed plans for a community center in the area. Others gushed about the need for churches to create programs to keep youth off the streets.

And there was grief. It lingered in the eyes of mothers who had buried their sons. It was in the voice of the muscular football player who handed over the microphone when emotions drowned out his words.

For Tamelia Hemingway of Little River, the rally was personal.

Emblazoned on the back of her T-shirt were praying hands and the name of her nephew, Quentin Reeves.

Reeves, a senior at North Myrtle Beach High, was shot once in the chest on April 18 at The Party Shop on S.C. 90. He died on prom night, at the age of 18.

“The violence has to stop,” Hemingway said.

Kashawn Hannah, 14, knew both Reeves and Dewitt, the latter of whom had class with him. Hannah wore a purple shirt that bore the message “Break the silence, stop the violence.” He said people in the area keep talking about what’s happened and how it could have been prevented.

“Some are being strong,” he said, “trying to get through it.”

A banner for Mothers Against Violence was draped over one picnic table. Kendra Keel, who lost two sons to violence in Myrtle Beach, stood near it.

Like others, she said the rally was important.

But change, she said, shouldn’t come after the fact.

“They’ve got to stop before they get here,” she said, adding that she made a similar appeal to other mothers last week. “I want to

do what I can help to save your son now. … We don’t want to bury them. We want to save them.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Longs community gathers to talk about murdered teens."