Emotional parents call on NYC officials to help solve cold case murders of their kids
EAST FLATBUSH, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Families of victims of unsolved murders across New York City gathered on Thursday night to come together and make sure their voices were heard.
The parents of children who were murdered want justice and closure. They gathered in grief on Thursday but called on officials to solve the cold case murders of their kids.
The families torn apart by gun violence stood side by side after years of collective pain and at the Reflections Church in East Flatbush.
The families who feel unheard are now crying out for help. Together they represent dozens of lives lost.
But it's more than those lost, it's about the families who survived.
More than 30 of the murders remain unsolved cases.
"Imagine going to sleep horrified your child is dead and not knowing if the person you just stood next to in the store murdered your child," Michelle Barnes-Anderson said.
"We just wanna know who did it, I don't care if they don't get punished, I just wanna know," said Ian Richards.
"I'm angry. I'm outraged. Because I know how I was treated by NYPD out of the 83rd Precinct," said Natasha Christopher. "I was treated horrible. My family was treated like we did something wrong. We were treated like I did a crime, like my son did a crime, when my son was the victim."
Led by Pastor Gil Monrose, these families say they have gone through four police commissioners to assign more resources to the NYPD's families of homicide victims liaison unit.
Right now there are only two officers assigned to it.
To hear their pain and to absorb their loss were high-ranking police officials and officers from the community affairs unit.
And while no promises were made, sometimes showing up to listen can go a long way.
Sometimes a handshake offers possibility and hope.
"The perpetrator rode off on a bike and he was never caught," said Michelle Allen. "There was no media, it just gets tucked away. We keep saying there are solved and unsolved cases, but even if they're solved they're not ever solved because there's a piece of the puzzle that's missing."
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