LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)-The second annual peace walk took place in downtown Lafayette this evening.
Last year the walk was dedicated to Alton Sterling and the five officers shot in Dallas. With the recent shooting in Mamou, this year’s walk was dedicated to Dejuan Guillory.
Guillory was shot and killed by a police officer 6 days ago during a traffic stop. His girlfriend, 21-year- old Duquince Brown was released from jail yesterday after being charged with attempted murder of a police officer.
According to the event’s Facebook page, The peace walk is a day to reflect as a human race, to resolve problems with reasonable solutions, and to prevent tragedies and killings.
Roland Lewis, the peace walk organizer said, “I’m having a lot of high tension behind what the peace walk is really about. It’s simply a peace treatment for everybody to join hands, talk, sing, and give solutions to other people that you may not know.”
Chelsea Trailer, a Lafayette resident who took part in the walk said, “It takes a community to make a change so this is the perfect opportunity that Roland has helped us with. I attended last year when we dealt with police violence so of course, this is the perfect venue for me to participate and do the best I can to help my community.”
People of all ages came to be a part of the demonstration and to promote ways to find a peaceful solution to social issues.
“It’s just that simple it’s not nothing hard. It’s just coming together and trying to figure out how we can fix the problem. Everybody’s so eager to point the finger at one person and just say we need justice in this area, we need justice in the justice system, school system, losses done. It doesn’t make a difference what system it is we need justice everywhere. And if we can’t come together and talk about the problems and reform them and they’re always going to be the same. They are always going to be the same,” said Lewis.
The peace walk ended with speeches, prayers, and hope that their demonstration sets the tone for change in the community.
