COVINGTON, Ky. — Amani Smith’s close friends came back to the scene where the 14-year-old died just two days earlier.
They wanted to be together, and outside a growing memorial of candles, balloons, crosses and messages was the only place that made sense, a 16-year-old said.
As the half dozen group of kids stood around and recounted memories, they kept repeating Amani should have never had his life taken from him.
Now, they say they will find a way to move forward — something that won’t be easy.
Social media spread gun violence threats against Holmes Middle School on Wednesday night. The Covington Independent Public School District said in a statement that the threats were “vague” and “not substantiated.”
Classes went on as scheduled Thursday. Still, a mother of three elementary school students and one middle school student kept her children home.
“My children are not [going] to school for the rest of the week,” she said. “Because unfortunately, this needs time to die down.”
She did send her elementary school students to school Wednesday, the day after the shooting. She said her second and third grade students were told not to talk about the killing, but it was discussed with her fifth grader.
“They should have talked about it with everybody,” she said. “It’s very sad because some kids walk home, and they have to walk past that site.”
The scene of the shooting is close to Latonia Elementary School.
After three shootings in January, although all isolated incidents, residents are feeling more anxious, according to Rev. Dr. Lawrence Karow of Trinity United Methodist church.
“This is not my neighborhood anymore,” he said. “This is not what I'm used to, and that’s a feeling a lot of people share.”
Several churches will come together at Calvary Baptist Church in Covington on Thursday afternoon. It’s a gathering to pray, lament and declare hope, Karow said.
“We need the citizens of Latonia to say ‘I want to own the solution.’ We can assist them, we can resource them, but we can't do it for them,” he said.
It’s something that’s already known to Amani Smith’s older brother: “A message to the kids stay away from guns. Don't get yourself into any type of trouble. It can all lead up to stuff happening like this.”
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