PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Some of the "Mothers of the Movement" were in Philadelphia last week to support a Cobbs Creek woman who recently witnessed her son being shot and killed by police.
The Mothers of the Movement is a group of Black mothers whose children have been killed by law enforcement.
"I wouldn't wish this on anybody, to be a part of this," said Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice. Her 12-year-old son was shot and killed by Cleveland police in 2014 while playing in a park with a toy gun.
"Going through a process like this will tear your soul out," she said.
Rice said when she heard about Kathy Brant, whose 27-year-old son Walter Wallace Jr. was shot and killed as he wielded a knife last month during what parents called a mental health crisis, she said she had to come to Philadelphia.
"I'm here for her because I've been through this already," she shared, adding that she uses her grief as fuel. "I basically used my legacy to build Tamir's legacy."
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"What made me come is whenever they kill one of us, it opens up my wounds again," said Lisa Simpson. Her 18-year-old son, Richard Risher, was shot and killed by Los Angeles police in 2017.
And while use of force was deemed justified, a commission ruled the officers violated department tactics. Simpson said she knows Brant's pain.
"I wish when my son got killed that I had someone to come to California and love on me, hug on me," she said.
Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, who was died in an New York police officer's chokehold, also came to Philadelphia, and spoke at a Wallace family press conference on Friday.