Community remembers 11-year-old killed in Minneapolis park
Friends, family and community members took over the streets Sunday, marching down Dowling Avenue Sunday afternoon, to the park where 11-year-old Amir Atkins took his last breath.
Leading the march Sunday, is a man familiar with both gun violence and loss.
"We need to put the guns down and love up," said Cortez Rice.
Three years ago, Rice lost his 15-year-old son, Jahmari, after he was gunned down outside a school in Richfield.
"We're taking hits after hits after hits, and these is young lives that are being taken from us," said Rice.
"He touched all of our lives," said Atkins' grandmother, Kim Fate.
Fate said her grandson was a bubbly, feisty boy, who loved Spiderman, football and basketball. He just made the wrong friends, she said.
"I just think that he was negatively influenced. What he was looking for, I don't know, but he was too young to be out here in these streets," said Fate.
Community members are now pleading for an end to gun violence and for the shooter to take accountability.
"Whoever did this, I want you to know I hope you don't rest and sleep, because what you did was wrong to my grandson," said Fate.
Minneapolis police said Sunday, they continue to search for suspects and a motive.
