By Chris Yow
Editor
BIRMINGHAM — Happy. Silly spirit. Joyful. All of these words were used to describe 16-year-old Raven White tonight at a candlelight vigil held in her honor.
A crowd of family and friends gathered together in the same parking lot where White was gunned down in the late hours on Thursday night while eating pizza with her boyfriend in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Birmingham.
Students and teachers from Clay-Chalkville High School, along with White’s mother, sister and other family members all spoke of the kind heart and joyful soul of White.
“Raven just had this vibe and energy that nobody can explain,” classmate Lakirya Williams said. “We used to always play and laugh.”
Shaneriam Peoples added a similar statement.
“Anytime you’re around her, she makes you laugh. She was a really good person, easy to talk to. You never see her mad, either. It’s always happy, happy Raven.”
White’s mother, Tangee Dixon said she just wants the perpetrator to turn himself in.
“Make it easier on you,” she said. “I hurt for him. Because if you can steal from some kids while they’re just sitting there eating pizza… come on now. Get you a job. We do.”
Figuring out why White was killed is something Dixon says will be on her mind forever because it was senseless.
“I don’t understand why he shot her,” she said. “I know she screamed, but you didn’t have to kill her. She was scared.”
Dixon said there isn’t a night that goes by when she doesn’t hear a gunshot. She pleaded for it to stop.
“Put the guns down,” she said. “Bullets ain’t nothing to play with. If you are out here shooting for fun, the bullets go up, but they have to come down.”
Nonetheless, Dixon said the message she wants others to take away from the situation is to love one another.
“We’ve got to love each other. Like they said, If you’re not in church, get in church,” she said. “You’ve got to get right because you don’t know when He’s coming back.”
By all accounts, White was loving and silly. Clay-Chalkville volleyball coach Natasha Brown, who coached White for two seasons, said she hopes her character will shine through the school. Brown said, however, the upcoming week will be difficult.
“It will be a little difficult. The counselors are ready to speak with the students. It’s going to be difficult for the entire Clay-Chalkville family,” Brown said. “She was very sweet and calm. She had a silly spirit. This is difficult for me; I’ve never lost someone this close to me due to murder.
“She’s not my child, but these are all my babies. Those kids, I take them home with me.”
Minister Dwayne Thompson for Youth Against Violence said he hates that something like White’s death has to happen to bring violence to the forefront.
“Hopefully it will bring greater neighborhood watches together; bring communities together and get more people speaking out and more aware of what’s going on in their neighborhood,” he said.