Camden 2011 homicide victims remembered at candlelight vigil

December 30, 2011|By Darran Simon, Inquirer Staff Writer

  • Sister Helen Cole (back to camera) prays with others at the regular noon Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden.

Sister Helen Cole (back to camera) prays with others at the regular noon Mass at the Cathedral… (TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer)

  • Arelis Soto, a parishioner at the cathedral who recently moved back to Camden, attended to see whether she knew any of the victims. She thought she might but wasn't sure. "Even if you don't, it's still shocking," said Soto, a substitute teacher. (TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer)
  • Candles burn for Anjanea Williams, 20, and Jeremiah Johnson, 17, the city's first two homicide victims of 2011. Williams was waiting for food outside a deli in Waterfront South when she was killed by a stray bullet. Affectionally known as "Nay Nay," she had dreamed of one day opening her own day-care center. Johnson, of Sicklerville, was shot multiple times at the intersection of Mount Ephraim and Morton streets. (TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer)

Each November, when Sister Helen Cole starts planning her annual candlelight vigil to remember Camden's homicide victims, she starts with the latest death and works backward, setting aside an hour for each person.

She mails letters of invitation to victims' relatives and hopes the death toll doesn't rise. But each year, a handful of people are killed after the vigil is planned. Last year, a 31-year-old man was killed during the final day of the vigil, and he was remembered, too, sharing an hour with another victim.

This year, seven more homicide victims, including a popular Cramer Hill grocer, will share the 42d hour of the three-day vigil with 39-year-old Tara Ryan of Woodbury, found fatally shot in a car with another victim on Nov. 11.

On Thursday, Cole lighted the first of 16 votive candles at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Market Street in Camden in memory of the first group of this year's 49 homicide victims - the tally as of Thursday evening. Sixteen others will be remembered on Friday, and 17 on Saturday.

"The families who come are always so grateful," Cole, 53, said. "I think they, too, feel the peacefulness. That's what we are trying to do, is give people that moment of peace here, so when they do go home, they will find that calm when they need it,"

The youngest victim was 19-month-old Matthew Thompson, who died from blunt-force trauma on April 13. Eighteen others were under 25.

The oldest victim was 53-year-old Francisco Soto Perez, whose sister-in-law found his body Sept. 10 in a shed behind her house. He had been stabbed multiple times.

Miguel Almonte, 46, a native of the Dominican Republic, was killed during a robbery of his Cramer Hill bodega Dec. 5. No arrests have been announced.

Kano Williams, a Rutgers-Camden student near graduation who owned a Jamaican restaurant in East Camden, was killed Oct. 5 by a man who police say was a friend.

So far, the city has recorded 10 more homicides than last year's final tally. Other crimes - violent and nonviolent - also have increased.

One noticeable difference from last year is that more killings were bunched together.

In four instances this year, four people were killed within the space of a week. There were five victims during another week. In one case, two victims were killed within a half-hour of each other.

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