CINCINNATI — Dozens of people who knew Nia Booker came to Roselawn Park on Saturday, a week from the day she was shot and killed in Avondale, to mourn her death and call for an end to violence saying the death of an innocent pregnant woman should be a wake-up-call for everyone.
Before they released balloons into the heavens to join Booker, there was a lot of prayer, hugs shared and tears shed for the mother of five taken too soon.
Adrianne Frazier said her sister Nia was a loving woman, but there was one thing that she's going to miss the most.
"That laugh," Frazier said. "I'm going to miss that laugh. That laugh could make the walls shake."
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Nia's Aunt Cathy Boston said she heard the news she had been shot and drove to the hospital, but Boston learned of her death before she could get there.
"You never expect it to be your family," Boston said, "your niece, my Nia Pia. That's what I called her, my Nia Pia, and it's unreal."
Below the shared grief, anger boiled beneath the surface for many, including Nia's Aunt Dawn Crooks who read a poem she wrote to the crowd.
"One life committed to the grave, the other now the system's slave," she read. "The community loses again."
Crooks said the violence must come to an end, and those who perpetrate it must be brought to justice.
"Most of us are not happy about what's happening in our community," she said. "Do not let that be the narrative. We don't sit back and idly shrug our shoulders. We just don't know where to start."
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The family said their focus for now will be on caring for Nia's five kids, including the girl she gave birth to after she was shot.
"We get to see her every day in their faces," Crooks said. "We look for the light in the dark."
Crooks said the newborn girl is still on a ventilator in the hospital but was doing better.
A GoFundMe account has raised more than $10,000 for the kids, but hasn't reached its goal.
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