Family members and community leaders held a memorial Wednesday to remember a young South Florida girl who died after being hit by a stray bullet nine years ago.
Sherdavia Jenkins would have been 18 years old in 2015, and on Wednesday, mourners gathered at the park named in her honor at 62nd Street and 12th Avenue in Liberty City.
It was on July 1st, 2006, not far from the park, that she was gunned down by a stray bullet as two men opened fire on one another.
"It's significant because you have to memorialize, you have to keep the legacy of her young beautiful life intact and hopefully say to this community and to the world, 'please, no more children,'" Rev. Richard Dunn said.
Mourners also heard a message from her father, David Jenkins, in light of the upcoming July 4th holiday.
"Two nights ago, four kids were shot and in the hospital," he said. "A bullet took the life of our party, don't let a bullet take yours."
Rev. Dunn believes it's an ongoing effort to help the community learn how to prevent the senseless violence.
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"There's an old saying, 'if I can help somebody as I pass along then my living won't be in vane,'" he said.
"So many people are talking about it and influencing them to do the right thing rather than going to gangs and stuff, so I feel like the kids are getting it," said Catherine Jenkins, Sherdavia's sister.
The year Sherdavia was killed was a particularly violent and brutal one. She was the 16th child under the age of 18 to be killed that year, and it was only July 1st.
