Three Pensacola mothers who each lost a son to gun violence stood together at city hall this week, delivering a shared plea to young people across the area: put the guns down.
Mayor Grover Robinson brought the women before the public during a Facebook Live broadcast as Pensacola police worked a string of recent shootings, several of which remain unsolved.
Three Families, the Same Loss
Lashunda Dortch’s 19-year-old son, Ke’Avian Sanders, was shot and killed outside the Platinum Club early on Black Friday morning. “My baby is gone,” Dortch said during the broadcast. “He was only 19 years old.”
Cindy Martin’s son, Matthew Cox, was killed inside her own home in 2012. That same year, Rosa Dukes lost her son, Broderick Johnson.
“We’re just asking everybody to put the guns down,” Martin said. “Retaliation is not the answer.”
Martin said the pain never fades, and every new homicide reported in the news reopens it. “We feel the same pain as that mother so we have to go through this over and over again,” she said.
Dortch described the moment she learned her son had been shot. “I feel like somebody just took my heart and ripped it out of my chest,” she said. “I feel lost because I know that my baby is not coming back.”
A Call to Talk, Not Retaliate
The three women are urging young men in the area to resolve conflicts by talking through their problems rather than reaching for a weapon. “You’re not going to resolve anything,” Dortch said. “Another mother or another father will have to go through the same thing I’m going through right now. It’s just senseless.”
Many of the recent shootings, including the killing at the Platinum Club, remain unsolved. Police are asking anyone with information to come forward. Tips can be submitted anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 850-433-STOP.