JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With their hands held high and heavy hearts friends and family of Demantrae Franklin crowded the Bethel Baptist altar.
“Unfortunately once again here we are having to bury a young man before his prime, it's just sad,” said McKissick Jr.
15-year-old Franklin is the latest example of the violence in Jacksonville.
Franklin was gunned down at the Eureka Gardens Apartments about two weeks ago.
“They brought the body in -- this is a kid,” Mckissick Jr. said.
It was an emotional sight for the friends who saw him in this casket.
“He was a nice person, keep a smile, always rapping, laughing, kept his head up,” said Devon Davis, a friend.
Franklin was a friend remembered as fun and loving.
“He was a good friend… He stayed having me laughing in class,” said Trayvon Johnson, a friend of Franklin.
He's teaching his friends and hundreds of teenagers a lesson that Bishop Rudolph McKissick Jr. made very clear today.
“Look at him saying, ‘I don't want to be next and I don't have to be next,’” said McKissick Jr.
McKissick said the culture of violence can only be changed by providing these teens with alternatives.
“I just feel like it's a warning. He woke us up,” Davis said.
WJAX
