CROWN HEIGHTS — To honor advocate Lavon Walker’s life, the anti-violence group he helped create is raising funds for his two young sons who were left without a father after the 30-year-old was shot and killed in Miami this weekend.
Walker was the “heart” of the Crown Heights-based group Save Our Streets, his colleagues said after he was fatally wounded in South Beach on Sunday.
Before his death, Walker worked as a mediator and “violence interrupter” at S.O.S., which was founded to reduce the number of shootings in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“He was an an incredible friend, mediator, youth minister and, most importantly, husband and father,” the group said in an online fundraiser for Walker’s two sons, 8-year-old Lavon Jr. and 5-month-old Matthew.
S.O.S. is hoping to raise $20,000 for the boys’ education. Just a day after the group posted the fundraiser, more than 40 people donated a combined $3,400.
On Tuesday evening, the group held a memorial for Walker outside the organization’s Kingston Avenue office. At the gathering, an emotional crowd vowed to continue his work, calling out the S.O.S. motto “stop shooting, start living” while holding peace signs in the air.
“Lavon! Live on!” the crowd shouted.
No one has yet been arrested for the Miami shooting as of Tuesday but two people have been brought in for questioning in the case, according to reporting by the Miami Herald.
