Cupich leads crowd in peace walk, honors gun violence victims

Pamela Bosley still remembers the last time she spoke with her son.

“Be careful,” Bosley told 18-year-old Terrell in that phone call.

After Bosley hung up, the college student, who played bass for several gospel bands, was shot and killed outside a church — a place where Pamela Bosley believed he’d be safe.

Pamela Bosley was one of several dozens of people attending a Good Friday peace walk in Englewood to commemorate the lives of those killed this year in the city’s continuing crime wave.

Religious, civic, educational and political figures walked along the streets with Cardinal Blase Cupich, following 40-year-old Joseph Saunders, who carried a wooden cross reading, “Stop shooting.”

Gallery“Everyday, me and so many parents, we carry the cross that we did not ask for,” Bosley, 52, said as the Rev. Michael Pfleger comforted her.

“We carry the cross of waking up without our children. We carry the cross of a broken heart, sadness, hurt, pain, suffering [and] injustice as many of our cases remain unsolved.”

Some in the crowd wiped away tears while others sang religious songs. Many silently bowed their heads down as they walked. A few carried signs and posters of their slain loved ones.

One sign read, “This has to stop. Put down the guns.”

The Bosley family, who carried a white cross with Terrell Bosley’s name on it, wore red T-shirts that read, “purpose over pain.”

As the names of those killed so far this year were read, Pfleger shook his head. Cupich put his hands on his mouth.

“Look in the faces of the people here today,” Cupich said. “Hear the cries of those who are victims left behind by the deaths of their sons, brothers, cousins [and] daughters. Have compassion for them.”

Barbara Lobe-Mims, 55, an Englewood resident and housewife who lives two blocks away from where the procession started, said she is tired of the violence.

Lobe-Mims had moved to Chicago from Michigan to escape the gun-violence there after her nephew was shot. Now, fearing for her family’s life again, Lobe-Mims is thinking she will have to make another move.

“[The violence,] really don’t make sense,” she said as she stood on the sidewalk watching the marchers.

As the peace walk ended, Cupich told the crowd, “Let us today pledge that we will work with each other so that young people who are tempted to violence will put down their weapons and join us in a way that builds a better city. Walking was the first step. Let’s continue to walk together.”