Families remember slain Durham men with call to end gun violence

Maurice Daye, 19, was shot to death at the McDougald Terrace public housing complex. About seven hours later, Jonathan Lamont Johnson, 29, was shot in a car on University Drive near Hill Street.

Both cases remain unsolved.

“His last words to me was, 'Mama, I love you,'" said Susan Odom, Johnson's mother. “It’s a struggle every day to want to get up and want to do with you need to do."

Daye's mother, Jasmine Kalala, knows how Odom feels.

“The pain that I feel, I wouldn’t want that for anybody else,” Kalala said.

Gun violence continues to plague Durham, which looks for help from within and outside

Daye and Johnson were so close, they were almost like family, relatives said, and their deaths have brought their families even closer. Dozens of people showed up for Tuesday's vigil to honor their lives and convey a bigger message.

“Stop killing,” Kalala said.

“It really needs to stop – too much going on,” added another relative.

Bull City United, a group that works to deter violence in Durham’s hardest-hit areas, said more resources are needed because there is no single solution to the issue.

“It’s poverty, it’s the environment, no opportunities, lack of education, lack of understanding of who persons are,” said Keisha Gray, a community outreach director with Bull city United.

“It hurts me to my heart to know that we are still losing young people,” Odom said.

Odom and Kalala are working with Bull City United to create a grief counseling support group.