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Volume XLIV
‘City of Roses’
Women in Film
Number 12
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • March 11, 2015
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
‘Put
‘Put Your
Your Guns
Guns Down’
Down’
Urgent plea
for peaceful
path forward
O LIVIA O LIVIA
T HE P ORTLAND O BSERVER
Gang-related shootings are on the rise
and the mourning families of shooting
victims are urgently asking for an end to
the violence and a peaceful path forward.
Black mothers of gang-related shoot-
ing victims came together Thursday to
make their plea at Bethel AME Church in
northeast Portland.
Joined together by the sorrow of hav-
ing lost either a son or daughter to gang-
violence, about a half dozen moms spoke
of their hopes for positive change in the
community.
Among them was Gizelle Holiman,
mother of the recently deceased Quintrell
Holiman, who died during a fraught man-
hunt with police after running away from
a federal prison halfway house.
She shared her concerns about some
false reports regarding her son’s death
that could trigger violent acts aimed at
police.
“I just need to make it clear that my son
took his own life,” she said. “There are
rumors about people wanting to hurt the
police, I don’t want that. Leave the police
alone.”
Portland police officers said when they
were in pursuit of Holiman, he fled on foot
and was eventually found dead of a self-
inflicted gunshot wound near Shimmers
bar.
His mother described him as a hard
worker who would be up at 5 a.m. with a
cup coffee in hand, dancing, and ready to
start his day, “He would always tell young
men, ‘Don’t do as I do, do better than me,'”
she said. “He was fun, and loving.”
In a tearful plea, she urged warring com-
munity members to put their guns down
and think twice before acting violently.
What I want is everybody, gang mem-
bers, non-gang members to put your guns
down. And before you put your arms up to
shoot somebody, put your arms up and
BY
PHOTO BY O LIVIA O LIVIA /T HE P ORTLAND O BSERVER
Pastor Herman Greene leads a group of mothers and family members in prayer as they mourn the loss of sons and daugh-
ters to gang violence and ask the community to find a way out of the violence and a peaceful path forward.
continued
on page 8