Community marches through Chester to protest gun violence

CHESTER, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- There was a call for change in Delaware County Saturday as a march for peace consisted of mothers, fathers, friends, and colleagues.

All of the participants have been affected by gun violence on the streets of Chester.

Motorcycles protected the march from the front and back. Men who participated stood on the outside, while women and children stood in the middle.

The people marching say after a 62-year-old woman was struck and killed by a stray bullet last week, they can't be too careful.

"This is my city. I care. My children are here. I've been through things," said community activist Carol Kazeem. "I know how it is. I know the struggle with them. I've been there."

There have been 30 homicides in the city this year, nearly doubling the 18 of 2019.

Delco Resists, Black Lives Matter, and several other community organizations held a rally and march, which started in the parking lot of Chester High School, to demand change.

"A lot of black young men don't see other Black men in the community doing positive things, so I just take the time myself to step up and help in any way possible I can in my community," said Cliff Mewsome.

Police cars helped stop traffic as the marchers shut down a busy 9th Street, a route meant to draw attention.

Mothers carried a banner with more than 200 names of victims of gun violence since the 1980s. Each of them knowing someone on that list.

"On the front of my shirt is my son; he was killed three years ago," said Lisa Brooks, who helped carry the banner.

While her shirt was for her son, her mask was for her grandson, who was killed while playing basketball last spring.

Brooks says she knew more people on the banner and marched for all of them.

"We need people to come out of their comfort zone and tell what you know," she said.