Police, pastors pray for end to mounting violence in Chattanooga

photo Sgt. Daniel Jones, right, and Paul Smith, public safety coordinator, lead the way Tuesday as law enforcement officers gather with clergy and community members to pray for a stop to violence.
photo Sgt. Daniel Jones, center, speaks Tuesday as law enforcement officers gather with clergy and community members to pray for a stop to violence.
photo Sgt. Daniel Jones leads a prayer Tuesday as law enforcement officers gather with clergy and community members to pray for a stop to violence.

Local black clergy, officers with the Chattanooga Police Department, and a handful of civilians met on the corner of Market Street and MLK Boulevard Tuesday evening to pray about the mounting violence which has plagued the city's streets in the last week.

The Community Walk and Prayer Vigil was sponsored by the Chattanooga Police Department, as a way to reaffirm that the community and the Police Department will not stand for senseless violence.

Sgt. Daniel Jones began the Walk with a prayer, saying, "Lord, the armor is heavy, come alongside us and lead."

Approximately 50 people, many of whom were officers in uniform, walked down the street from Miller Park to the Bessie Smith Cultural Center. The group gathered in a circle outside of Bessie Smith and four pastors from neighborhoods affected by this most recent wave of the violence offered prayers.

Pastor Ron Cook, from Rock Island Missionary Baptist Church, located off of Dodson Street, prayed, "We have the faith to believe the foolishness stops here."

Read more in tomorrow's Times Free Press.

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