Pastor Deante Lavender on Saturday afternoon called out names at downtown Akron‘s Cascade Plaza, asking any of those people in attendance to step forward.
Lenard Owens. Sharleen Kohnke. Malcom Jamar Queen.
Daivan Floyd. Aharon Pittman Sr.
Malaysha Thomas. Tania Mangual. Jericho Mangual.
David Green. Christopher Butler. Honore Sommerville.
All of the people Lavender mentioned — with the exception of Tucker, 15, who was killed by an Akron police officer — were “murdered by somebody within the context of our community,” he said. Which is why the pastor of The Remedy Church asked the community to consider its own actions.
“I remember when I was younger,” Lavender said, “my mother would have me in the house, and she would tell me that however you treat your house is how they gonna treat your house.”
Lavender continued, “And if we start treating our communities and treating our kids and treating our families a little bit better, do you not think that we’re able to hold [police] accountable on a whole new level?”
Lavender’s speech at The Remedy Church’s Legacy Weekend event marked the latest public response to the city’s recent uptick in gun violence — from Highland Square and Kenmore to Lane Field. The shootings led Lavender to dig into crime statistics. There, he counted 138 gunshot victims from 2024 to present day.
“At some point in time,” Lavender said, “it is our job to hold each other a little bit more accountable because, at the end of the day, it ain’t their kids that’s getting killed. It’s ours.”
Lavender also expressed concern about the need for a partnership between the City of Akron, Summa Health, Cleveland Clinic Akron General and Minority Behavioral Health Group.
Under Partnership for Intervention, Violence Outreach, and Transformation, or PIVOT, when victims of gun violence arrive at emergency rooms, clinical therapists will connect them with immediate support, trauma-informed care and long-term community resources. This support will extend to their loved ones.
“There are so many people getting shot in our community that they are now taking money to fund programs so that we can visit families and to give them trauma response care and to help them maintain their mentality so that they don’t lose their mind,” Lavender said.
“Yes, it is needed. But my question is, ‘Why is it? Why do we have to put hundreds of thousands of dollars there?’ Then we can’t put hundreds of thousands of dollars in parks. We can’t put hundreds of thousands of dollars in schools.”
Lavender implored community members to work with a number of organizations on site for the weekend event: Jerome Moss of Guys & Gals Community Partnership; Richard Gibson of Students With A Goal — Lavender praised Gibson’s recent trip to Washington, D.C., with Akron students; Pastor Jeffrey Dennis of Minority Behavioral Health Group; Pastor Robert DeJournett of the Black Chamber of Commerce — Summit County and others.
He then gathered men and boys in circles to pray.
His final challenge was for Akron residents to choose life. The goal is to close the casket before he or other pastors have to eulogize another Akron resident before their time.
“I need you to walk away with the mindset, man, we got to give life,” Lavender said. “We got to carry life. We got to speak life.
“And it starts in every aspect of our lives.”
