By Marie Szaniszlo and Laurel Sweet
Thursday, October 7, 2010
They were buried the way they died: A mother cradling her toddler in her arms, his hand on hers.
The final embrace yesterday of Eyanna Flonory and her 2-year-old son, Amanihoteph Smith, made grown men weep, clergymen thunder and a city unite.
Hundreds of mourners waited in the rain outside Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan, a few blocks from Woolson Street, where the mother and child were gunned down last week with three other people in what remains an unresolved mass killing in a city that was already plagued by violence.
“God has decided to use this tragedy to speak to this city,” Bishop John M. Borders III told mourners. “This is enough of this violence . . . I’ve sat back long enough, and I’ve watched too many people die.”
“To those who were involved in this murder: We forgive you,” Borders said, “but you will feel the full weight of prosecution.”
Flonory, 21, was a Brockton High School graduate who was studying criminal justice at Bunker Hill Community College. She was known for being a “fashionista,” her family said, and was proud to have just moved herself and her son into the first home of their own.
“God made a mistake,” her brother, Dwayne Flonory, lamented. “He should have taken me.”
Her mother, Darlene Schneider, said simply, “May they rest in peace. I would like justice.”
Amani, as her grandson was known, was born on a sunsplashed day, that informed his cheerful disposition, his family said. He loved dancing to music videos, and his favorite foods were potato chips and oatmeal. His father and uncle had taught him how to dribble a ball and wondered yesterday whether he might have grown up to be an NBA superstar.
Flonory’s boyfriend, Simba Martin, was buried Tuesday, a day after he would have turned 22.
A funeral for a fourth victim, Levaughn Washum-Garrison, 22, is set for Monday in Mattapan.
The fifth victim, Marcus A. Hurd, 32, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Meanwhile, Kimani Washington, 34, of Dorchester, so far the only person arrested in connection with the shootings, is expected to return to Boston Tuesday from Manchester, N.H., where he is being held as a fugitive from justice. He is due to be arraigned Wednesday in Dorchester District Court on firearm and stolen vehicle charges, the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office confirmed. He has not been charged with murder.
Authorities say Washington was found with the key to the rented Ford Edge Hurd drove to Martin’s house. Police seized two handguns, ammunition, an empty 10-round magazine and marijuana from a backpack found in Washington’s bedroom at his mother’s apartment. His mother told police he’d briefly stopped by about 45 minutes after the murders occurred.
