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Regional faith leaders planning prayer event for northside students on Saturday

After a teacher and a student have been killed in one week on the northside, local leaders are coming together to support students and staff.

MINNEAPOLIS — Rain and wind battered a large memorial for 12-year-old London Bean on Thursday, a week after he was murdered outside his north Minneapolis home. By Friday morning, Bean's mother, Crystal Hill, was outside tending to site, and visibly upset.

It wasn't the rain drenched teddy bears or water damaged signs that bothered Hill, it was the news of several new murders nearby. 

"Seven people passed after my son got murdered," Hill said. "It has only been a week and seven people got murdered after my son."

Hill says she's growing weary of a pleading with a community that doesn't seem to be listening.

"I never lived like this," she said. "I got to play outside. I didn't have to worry about nobody shooting. Give these kids a chance."

Less than a mile away, Bishop Richard D. Howell, Jr., spoke to KARE 11 about that continued loss of life, while standing outside Shiloh Temple International Ministries.

"As a preacher, you have to address the realities of community, because we're all thinking it," said Bishop Howell.

As leader of the Shiloh Temple, Howell admits that he is also weary, especially after seeing the latest murder claim the life of a beloved local school teacher. So he decided to seek support from faith communities across the Twin Cities, inviting them to come to the northside on Saturday. 

Howell helped organize a "A Back to School Prayer for our Kids", which will take place at 2 p.m. on the North High football field.

Bishop Howell: "The death of that 12-year-old student, it gave me the idea that our students must be afraid. There must be some type of fear factor getting up in the morning, going to school and not guaranteeing that you're going to come home alive, and so it was necessary, we believe, to bring some hope."

Kent Erdahl: "How do you find hope right now?" 

Bishop Howell: "It's hard. It is very difficult. Every day you wake up hoping that the day will be good, and then throughout the day you hear a gunshot, you hear of another life lost. You hear of another assault of some kind. It's very hard, but I think John F Kennedy said something that was so powerful. We don't do things because they're easy, we do things because they're hard." 

Erdahl: "You're not holding the event at the Temple, you're holding it at the football field. Why?"

Bishop Howell: "We want everyone here. We want everyone who wants peace, everyone that needs prayer. Everyone that wants a blessing in the education system to be here tomorrow at 2:00. It is not just for one church, it's for all people. Let us become a community of one. Let us come with hope."

Crystal Hill says she'll be attending the event.

"I definitely need it," she said. "For some reason (my son) won't let me get mad, so I just come and just sit with him. Like I always did. I don't bother nobody. I just sit with my baby."

But as she holds vigil for her son, she hopes others will mobilize and show up for the kids, on Saturday and beyond.

"It can't be just hoping and praying," she said. "It's got to be actions. We really need to show these kids there's a better way."

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