The Rev. Floyd Brooks, with Greater Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church, has lived in Como for 68 years. On the pulpit July 5, he referred toPsalm 121:1-2, a line of scripture from the Bible to invoke hope in the community after a mass shooting.
- I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
- My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
“What are we going to do in Como?” Brooks said. “We’re going to look to the hills.”
For Brooks, Wednesday’s meeting was a way “to begin our healing day together” and to help the community move forward through faith.
“We're going to continue to trust God that everything will be all right,” Brooks said.
The clergy in the historically Black neighborhood assembled to address a mass shooting that occurred during a Como neighborhood block party late July 3 at the intersection of Diaz Avenue and Horne Street. The incident left three people dead and eight injured.
The Rev. Kenneth Jones said he wanted to pack the pews for the emergency public meeting at the Como First Missionary Baptist Church where he ministers because he is tired of talking about the problem of gun violence and ready for action.
Jones started the meeting with a prayer, thanking people for coming to the meeting and asking God and believers for their support. Jones' main goal was to ask Como residents to come to God for healing and for faith leaders to get involved with the city to create change.
“None of these issues are going to get resolved until we get back to God,” Jones said.
Jones has lived in Como for 27 years. During the meeting, he called out to faith leaders to collaborate with city officials on potential solutions that target gun violence in the community.
The Rev. Kyev Tatum, from New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in east Fort Worth, proposed Black pastors and Black churches create a gun violence task force. The shooting is a “spiritual issue that the Black community has to address,” he told the audience.
“Fort Worth needs a massive makeover, and it needs to start with the Black community and with the Black church,” Tatum said.
Following Wednesday’s briefing, Jones told the Fort Worth Report that supporting the grieving community is important and he intends to continue that conversation at the Lake Como Neighborhood Advisory Councilmeeting on July 6.
“We have to keep it spiritual,” Jones said. “This ain’t going to move y’all if it ain't spiritual.”
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.