Community remembers 20 children who died from gun violence, abuse

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Lucas County Children Services hosted its annual Child Memorial Service on Thursday. The community came together to remember 20 children who have died from gun violence and abuse within the last year.

The ceremony was emotional and even featured a call to action for everyone to step up and find solutions to gun violence.

At the service, there was a candle lit for each of the kids who died between April 2022 and April 2023. The vice chair of the LCCS Board of Trustees, Suzette Cowell, got emotional as she told everyone this was the one-year anniversary of her granddaughter’s, Desire Hughes, murder.

“So there is definitely a hole in our hearts,” said Cowell. “I tell everyone it’s a club you don’t want to join.”

The man who shot and killed Hughes was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison on the same day as the memorial.

As the community grapples with the young lives lost, the new executive director of LCCS, Randall Muth, says his team counts on the community to build a safety net around its most vulnerable children.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where we don’t need ceremonies like this, but we can do a lot by working together to try to minimize that,” said Muth.

Paula Hicks-Hudson was the keynote speaker at the ceremony, and she shared her thoughts while asking the community what they can do to help prevent the senseless deaths.

“What are we doing to make sure that we have safe communities? That they are able to grow and learn in safe schools, have safe environments. Where they will be healthy and that we don’t have the challenges of dispirited health care,” said Hicks-Hudson. “We cannot let the progress that has been made in this community begin to let it slip. We must continue in the honor of these children.”

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.