NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Families and community members came together on Sunday in North Las Vegas to march in support of their loved ones affected by gun violence.
"What we're trying to do is build awareness on the subject of gun violence, support the families," said Ashley Jackson, Marketing and Outreach specialist for the Nevada Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, (FDAM).
Jackson also shared a personal connection to the event.
"Unfortunately, my cousin was murdered in 2020. She was shot. She was 28," Jackson said. "It definitely hits close to home."
Participants carried poster-sized pictures of their loved ones who had been tragically taken by unnecessary acts of violence.
Phylis Tellis, whose son Joseph Deandre Jefferson was murdered in 2013, expressed the enduring pain of losing a child.
"Losing a child is a lifelong sentence," Tellis said. "It's something that never goes away. Your pain never goes away."
She added her motivation for marching is because her son's murder remains unsolved.
"Everything is just unsolved. You know, the only thing that I can say that they've given us is the first thing is that they deemed it as gang-related that my son died. Gang-related."
Survivors of gun violence also joined the march including Geena Springmann, a leader for the Nevada chapter of Moms Demand Action.
"I am a survivor of the Route 91 mass shooting here in Las Vegas, Nevada and that propelled me into this work."
Springmann emphasized the widespread impact of gun violence on families and communities.
In unity, people gathered to march, each with their own reasons but a shared goal: to stop the violence and increase the peace
