Page A16
May 13, 2015
Converting Pain
into Purpose
C ONTINUED FROM F RONT
The family was welcomed to
Portland by several local moth-
ers who are also grieving the loss
of their sons to violence on the
streets.
One mother, Lucy Mashia,
spoke of losing her son, Leonard
Irving Jr., in 2011 to gang vio-
lence. To this day, Mashia does
not know who took her son’s life
and continues a battle to learn
anything about who may have tak-
en his life and why.
“I just want to know why,” said
Mashia. “The suffering is hard for
me, when I still don’t have any an-
swers, when I still have to ask when
someone out there knows how my
son died and who killed him.”
Dickerson’s father, Bishop
Charles Dickerson, a resident of
California, also spoke.
“Nothing we do today will
bring our son back,” he said. “Yet
we believe we can avoid this pain
for another parent. I am in pain, I
cry every day. I believe in God.
But we are trying to convert our
pain into purpose.”
Kate Desmond, the community
justice manager at the Multnomah
County Department of Justice,
shared her plea, “We strive to talk to
young men about education and go-
ing to school,” she said. “We don’t
want to see this happen to anyone.”
Multnomah county Deputy
District Attorney Eric Zimmer-
man also spoke to the family and
vowed to help them, and other
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wished they had, offering support
for future generations.
“I really do believe in mentor-
ship and positive role models,”
said Zimmerman. “I would like to
turn that 16 or 18 year old look-
ing at a struggle in life and show
him he can turn himself around. It
takes a village to raise a child, and
I’m part of that village, and so are
you.”
A family friend of Dickerson’s
mother, Veronica Very, sang and
the family came forward to cry
and pray. Soon they were joined
arm in arm by the other mothers,
other community members, and
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time,” said Very. “I don’t want
anybody to have to go through
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PHOTO BY O LIVIA O LIVIA /T HE P ORTLAND O BSERVER
Dr. Pastor Mark Strong of Life Change Church leads the room in prayer as other family members
of slain black youth embrace, including Lucy Mashia and Kimberly Dixon, two Portland mothers of
murder victims, and Keonna Jackson, the mother D’Andre Dickerson, a man killed in recent shooting
near Woodlawn Park.
th but we need to come togeth-
this,
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to
together,
I believe we can try and
s
stop
this from happening to other
f
families,
and expose this culture
o violence and replace it with
of
c
concern
and love for one another.”
Crime Stoppers is offering a re-
w
ward
up to $1,000 for information
le
leading
to an arrest in Dickerson’s
d
Tips can be left at crimes-
Lucy Mashia holds up a photo of her only son, Leonard James, death.
“L.J.” Irving, who she lost in June 2011. Police still do not know who toppersoforegon.com or by call-
shot and killed Irving and Mashia continues to look for answers. ing 503-823-HELP.