Sunday marks year since Selma high student’s death
Published 11:13 pm Thursday, December 18, 2014
Sunday will mark a year since 18-year-old Selma High student Alexis Hunter was shot and killed near her school, leaving her mother with a pain that’s hard to describe.
Since Joann Hunter learned that a Selma teen allegedly killed her daughter at the corner of Franklin Street and Memorial Avenue, she has tried to keep her daughter’s loving and kind spirit alive.
Joann hopes she will be able to do just through the Alexis Hunter Love Stops Violence Foundation’s prayer vigil, which will be Sunday at 2 p.m. at Selma High’s tennis courts. She encourages the community to come out and support her family in celebrating Alexis’ life.
“Having the support from the community really gives me some ease,” Joann said. “Nothing takes the place of her being here, but having a support group really helps me to go one day to the next day.”
Alexis’ aunt, Patricia Bailey, said the foundation hopes that his vigil will remind the public that people should not resort to violence to solve their problems.
Instead, Bailey would like the community to love one another as Alexis loved so many around her.
“[Violence] goes further than the person that died and the family,” Bailey said. “It affects more people than you would believe.”
Murder suspects John Jones and Larry Hunter allegedly robbed a group of girls, including Alexis, for their cell phones during the incident on Dec. 21, 2013. The shooter was reportedly Larry.
Jones was indicted on capital murder at the time of the incident, and Larry received the same charge in early July.
The two are expected to appear in court for trial May 4, 2015.
Larry, who was 18 at the time of the incident, is facing either the death penalty or the life in jail without parole if convicted, District Attorney Michael Jackson said in July.
Because Jones was a minor at the time of the shooting, at 16 years old, he cannot face the death penalty, Jackson said.
For more information about the vigil, contact Patricia Bailey at (334) 526-2021.