East St. Louis community prays for healing, change in wake of teenager’s homicide
Their theme is love. Their prayer is for peace and harmony and a community that works together.
The group is Live Free: a campaign of the national nonprofit Faith in Action that focuses on ending gun violence and mass incarceration.
On Sunday afternoon, Live Free hosted a community prayer vigil to remember one of the city’s youngest homicide victims, Kyeiontae Stidimire.
About 20 people attended the event in the parking lot of the old Lincoln High School on Bond Avenue, including clergy from multiple churches in the area, Kyeiontae’s friends and family and several youth group members, who wore shirts with the symbol of a crossed-out gun and the words, “Can I live?” on it.
‘He was doing all the right things’
On June 9, Kyeiontae was shot and killed on his way home to his apartment in the John DeShields Housing complex.
He and his older brother had left their apartment to walk a friend halfway home so the friend would not have to walk alone. On their way home, Kyeiontae was shot and killed by random gunfire.
East St. Louis Patrol Sgt. Cantrell Patterson said it didn’t appear that Kyeiontae was the target. As of Sunday, police had not made any arrests in the case, which is being jointly investigated as a homicide by East St. Louis and Illinois State Police.
Gone is Kyeiontae’s joyful physical presence and left in its place is tremendous pain and anguish for his family and friends.
“He was a good kid,” said his grandmother, Sheila Nelson-Stidimire. “He was not hanging out in the streets where trouble can be found. He was doing all the right things. He had just graduated from the eighth grade and was very much looking forward to ‘going to the big school.’ He was so excited about that.”
Kyeiontae was set to attend East St. Louis Senior High School.
His mom, Rayona Stidimire, said her son wanted very much to play sports and get an education because she always told him without an education he couldn’t be successful in life.
“He was just 14 and had his whole life in front of him,” she said. “He was going to turn 15 July 13. This year his birthday will be one of the hardest days I have to get through. He loved to eat so either I would cook what he told me he wanted or we would have gone out to eat whatever he wanted to eat and then sat back and enjoyed each other’s company.”
At Sunday’s vigil, another mom who’d lost her son to gun violence in East St. Louis spoke directly to Stidimire when it was her turn to have the microphone.
“Just call on God,” said Skyla Pawnell, whose son, Aaron Prayer, was killed in 2018. “He’ll be everything that you need. Even through these times, birthdays, holidays ... just call on God.”
Stidimire is still processing the fact that her son is gone.
“It’s hard to go on knowing my son won’t walk through my door again,” she said. “I went to the funeral and I know his death is real, but somehow reality has not set in yet. I keep thinking he’s going to walk through my door again.”
The Stidimire siblings are struggling with their brother’s death as well.
Kyeion, 17, held his dying brother in his arms and watched him take his last breath. His mother said, “He says he is OK, but he is not the same. He misses his brother very much.”
‘I want these killings to stop’
Stidimire talked of all of the gunfire she hears in the area nearly every day and wondered aloud where “these children are getting these guns from.”
“Some of the guns these kids have are large guns. How are they getting them?” she asked. “I wonder if parents are paying attention to what their children are doing and who they are with. My son was randomly shot and died because of a stray bullet. I want these killings to stop.”
“You bring a child into this world and you have to watch him leave this world because of gun violence, because of something he had no control over,” she said. “It’s very hard. Kyeiontae always talked about how he would get an education, do the right things and get himself and his family out of the John DeShields.”
After 15 years in the DeShields, Stidimire is ready to move. She said she doesn’t have the money to move, but is trying to raise it through donations. She also wants to buy a headstone for her son’s grave, she said.
A bank account in Kyeiontae’s name has been set up for donations at Associated Bank on Collinsville Avenue in East St. Louis.
“Children should be allowed to children,” Stidimire said. “They should be able to stand outside in front of where they live and not wonder whether a stray bullet will hit them. People come out here and shoot in broad daylight. Lots of the time, the reckless shooting claims innocent people’s lives.”
Stidimire also urged people who see something to say something. She said people don’t want to be labeled as a snitch, but that it’s not snitching when you give police the information they need to get people who are killing people off the street.
“Nobody wants to talk,” she said. “Nobody saw anything. If this is the way people continue to think, these shootings will continue. If we want to give our young Black people a chance to live long lives, people have to speak up. Lots of times people don’t want to get involved until their loved one is killed and the person is not caught. Then, we hear them crying out for help to catch the person who did it. We are all in this together.”
Nelson-Stidimire said there are no words or action “to bring my baby back.” She spoke not only of her grandson, but also all of those who have been taken through an act of senseless violence in their area.
Nelson-Stidimire said she has a problem with “us protesting against wrong with police brutality against us, but we’re still killing each other.”
“Black lives do matter, so we have to stop killing each other and come together as people,” she said. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what color you are. To me, any life lost to senseless violence affects me. It’s nonsense. We should see what we can do to help someone, not harm them.”
Nelson-Stidimire said racism and the oppressive system Black people have to live under are also contributing reasons for the high crime in the Black community. She wants to see neighbors checking on each other and sharing food and other resources with those people who have little to nothing.
“We have to find something for these children to do,” she said. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. (Other communities) have safe parks and playgrounds, swimming pools, recreation centers ... We deserve the same things. We need the people to help with these things. What good is it to sit on money and not be willing to help?”
‘We want to see change’
Larita Rice-Barnes, who works with Live Free, organized Sunday’s vigil. She said her organization began focusing more on reducing gun violence in the John DeShields complex last October because it was one of the city’s hot spots.
When COVID-19 hit, the group of clergy members had to discontinue the walks. Rice-Barnes said they are eager to get back out there.
“We started doing community walks through the housing complex and in the community once a week,” she said. “We engaged with people who were simply hanging out there. We asked them how they were doing, how they were feeling in the moment in the community and with things going on around the world. We want them to know we are there for them to offer what resources we can to help them out.”
The prayer Sunday was arranged both to remember Stidimire “and to pray for healing the whole community,” she said.
“Prayers go out to the Stidimire family,” Rice-Barnes said. “We know what they are going through. We want to see change. We want to get the resources they and the community need.”
Rice-Barnes was born and raised in East St. Louis and said that, historically, it has been left out when it comes to getting resources to make the quality of life better there.
She called Live Free “our urban strategic campaign” and a part of Faith In Action, the largest grassroots faith-based organizing network in the U.S. The organization works with 1,000 religious congregations in more than 200 cities and towns through its 46 local and state federations.
“We have to make sure our under-served communities are getting the services they need,” she said. “Systemic oppression and a lack of resources contribute to crime. We are going to continue working and be the voice for a turnaround.”
In regards to the narrative of “Black-on-Black crime,” Rice-Barnes said, “We don’t talk about white-on-white crime. Black-on-Black crime is being pushed through the lens of white supremacy. People commit crimes according to proximity. The Black community has been raped because of a system of oppression. White supremacy has caused people to act like crabs in a bucket.”
During the vigil, Pastor Luke Jenkins of Love Fellowship in Centreville offered a prayer for the community.
“Father God, we’re trusting you to move throughout this neighborhood ... throughout this area ... to do a mighty work. To offer your presence to sweep through this place. We’re asking that you will begin the healing process.”
This story was originally published July 5, 2020 at 9:02 PM.
.jpg)