Nearly one year after a Tallahassee man was killed in a mass shooting outside a local liquor store, his family and friends are renewing their calls for an end to gun violence.
Forty-year-old DeMario "Ro" Murray was one of nine people who were shot when several people starting firing guns into a crowd outside Half Time Liquors on West Pensacola Street on Oct. 29, 2022. Murray was the only one who didn't survive.
“The pain that I endure every day — I don’t want that pain for nobody else,” said Murray's mother Sandra Horne. “This pain will never, ever go away.”
A memorial for Murray has been placed on a billboard on South Monroe Street with the message: "The gun violence must stop."
“We’re hoping that for the rest of the year this message is heard and there’s no more violence," said local attorney and Tallahassee NAACP President Mutaqee Akbar, whose law firm paid for the billboard memorial.
Murray’s mother Sandra Horne spoke about her son’s death for the first time on Wednesday during a press conference near the billboard.
“I struggled because every time I turned on the TV or read something, gun violence was still present," Horne said. "I told myself that I would continue to pray for strength, so that when the anniversary came I could speak out.”
According to city police data published by the Tallahassee Democrat, there have been 70 shootings so far this year. Fifty-six people have been injured in those shootings, and 19 people have died.
Murray was 'a bright light' to his family and friends
Murray was a father to three girls. He was a graduate of Rickards High School and worked at Florida State University and Capital Health Plan. “My son was a humbled and sweet and kind child," Horne said. "He was my only child."
Tiffany Lee of Tallahassee was among about three dozen people who gathered outside the billboard to remember Murray this week. Lee says she's known Murray since they were in kindergarten.
“He was just such a bright light," Lee said. "He was one of those people who everybody just loved.”
Lee says she and her husband are now left with "a void" following their friend’s untimely death.
Tallahassee NAACP President Mutaqee Akbar says he's hopeful that Murray's story will bring more attention to the rampant shootings in the community. Peer-reviewed research shows African Americans are disproportionately affected by gun violence. Akbar says it's especially important for the Black community to take the issue seriously.
"As a community, we need to grab these young men that we see going in the wrong direction, grab them in, pull them in," Akbar said. “It’s easy for us to show up when the police do something. It’s easy for us to march when there are systemic injustices, but this is just as big of an injustice when we’re killing each other, when we’re fighting each other, when we’re shooting for no reason."
One year after the shooting, not every suspect has been caught
Hundreds of people were gathered outside the liquor store and across the street at Bajas nightclub when at least five shooters began firing into the crowd during homecoming weekend last October, according to court records.
De’Arius Cannon, 31, is the only one who's been convicted for his involvement in the shooting, according to court records. Three suspects allegedly involved in the shooting were charged along with Cannon and are currently in the Leon County jail on various charges, some unrelated to the shooting. One suspect still hasn't been caught.
“And the tragic thing is there were so many bullets flying, so many guns shooting, we don’t know which gun killed him," Akbar said. "We don’t know which gun the bullet came from that actually killed him, which is tragic.”
Cannon was shooting from the McDonald’s parking lot when police arrived on the scene last October. In March, he was convicted of attempted manslaughter. The jury found him not guilty on the charge of second-degree murder. Right now, he's serving a 13-year prison sentence.
Akbar says the government should stop ignoring the problem of shootings and "invest in these communities that are suffering from this violence."
"They want to develop communities that already are developed and not give opportunities to people who've been looked over for centuries," he said. "Let's put the money, the finances back into the communities that need it, so we can have economic development, so these young men can understand that there are other ways to advance and move on in society than to have guns, than to sell drugs, than to do things that would lead to a path where stuff like this can happen."
