Mock funeral held to "bury" violence

August 10, 2009
By NICK CARBONI (NCC News)

SYRACUSE -- A month after his brother was brutally murdered, Willie Cooper got up on stage and sang a song.

The 25-year-old said his lyrics were for all victims of homicide, which includes his 22-year-old brother, Gary Cooper, who was stabbed to death last month.

"It wasn't even anything to do with gangs," Willie Cooper said. "Just wrong place, wrong time."

Cooper was taking part in the fifth annual Mothers Against Gun Violence Community Vigil, a march from Armory Square to Clinton Square. This year the event had a different look. A hearse donated by the DeWitt Memorial Funeral Home. The hearse was supposed to signify the death of violence in Syracuse.

There have been 12 murders in Syracuse in 2009, and 2008 saw 25 homicides. Willie Cooper isn't sure if it will ever end.

"We need the suspects and people who do these things to come forward and how it affects the families," he said.

The event ended with a candle light vigil.