‘Put the guns down.’ Moms and leaders speak out about gun violence in Lexington
Marita Cole is a survivor of gun violence. Her son, William, was shot and killed in a Lexington street on May 22, 2017. He was 26.
The journey, she said, has been horrible, and she often questions how she makes it from day to day.
On Friday, she told her story to a crowd of people wearing the color orange, revealing how hard it is to make it through Mother’s Day, May 22 -- the anniversary of William’s killing -- and Memorial Day without her son.
“There’s nothing like being a mother with no child,” Cole said. “You have no child because somebody decided to take a gun and murder yours.”
Cole was one of several speakers at an event recognizing National Gun Violence Awareness Day at the Courthouse Plaza in Lexington, where Mayor Linda Gorton presented a proclamation to Moms Demand Action, recognizing June 7 as “Wear Orange Day” in the city.
Fayette County Sheriff Kathy Witt, an advocate for survivors of crime, called for victims and survivors of gun violence to join her near the podium and share their stories.
“One is too many, one homicide, one act of gun violence is too many,” Witt said. “The work must continue, it must go on. We have to continue to work harder and more collectively than we ever have before.”
How ‘Wear Orange Day’ got its start
Kathi Crowe, a co-lead of Moms Demand Action in Lexington, also spoke, telling the crowd that 120 people die every day from gun violence in America with 837 people in Kentucky killed per year.
Friday’s gathering was hosted by Moms Demand Action, a network of survivors, victims and families committed to fighting gun violence across America
The orange shirts people wore represented “Wear Orange Day,” an effort to spread gun violence awareness.
“Wear Orange Day” was started by friends of Hadiya Pendleton after the 15-year-old from Chicago was shot and killed in 2013.
Lynsey Sugarman, co-lead of Mom’s Demand Action in Lexington, said they worked with leaders around the country to start the National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Gorton told the crowd on Friday she wanted people, especially youth to “put the guns down.”
“Gun violence has plagued our nation for many years and has claimed the lives of far too many Lexington residents,” Gorton read from the proclamation.
“By participating today in ‘Wear Orange,’ we rally for safer communities and together we can build a future free from gun violence,” Crowe said.
William Cole’s murder in 2017
He was found on the street and died later that night at the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital.
Chanse Robertson, 37, was arrested and charged with Cole’s murder. In 2019, he was sentenced to six years in prison with credit for 600 days he had already served after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter, a lesser charge.
“My brother was worth more than six years,” Jordan Cole, William’s brother, said in 2019. “There’s not a time amount you can put on someone’s life, but I feel like the type of person my brother was, the things he did for this community, no one’s perfect, but his heart was pure and the things he did were pure.”
On Friday, Marita Cole spoke about the pain she’s been dealing with since the death of her son, who was a father of two.
“Anybody that has to go through this because of gun violence, I feel for you, I pray for you,” Marita Cole said.
