Rally For Peace Held at Benson High School

Teenagers in the metro are taking a stand against violence while mourning the death of their peers.

By Fatima Rahmatullah

CREATED Nov. 2, 2012

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  • Teenagers in the metro are taking a stand against violence while mourning the death of their peers. Video by kmtv.com

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Omaha, NE –Teenagers in the metro are taking a stand against violence while mourning the death of their peers.

Eriana Carr,16 was gunned down at 35th & Redick Tuesday night. She and a close family friend were shot multiple times. Eriana did not survive.
Just 10 days before someone shot and killed16-year-old Montrell Wiseman. He was an Omaha South basketball player.  
Students, teachers and community leaders met for the second time this week to mark the death of yet another classmate.
“I don’t think I could deal with another funeral and see another one of my friends die behind a gun, somebody not knowing who they are shooting at,” says Eriana's friend Tyler Stratton.
Students from Omaha, Millard, Papillion-La Vista and Bellevue rallied together to send a strong message saying enough is enough.
“It’s about everybody coming as one and fighting for each other and trying to get all these bad people with these guns and this violence off the streets,” says Stratton.
They call themselves the Omaha Youth Peace Movement. They encouraged their peers to make a pledge for peace.
“So we could live and grow up to see us have kids and to see us graduate and make it somewhere in life instead of us young people getting our life cut short,” says Stratton.
Students released balloons in memory of their friends. Benson High Principal, Anita Baldwin says the solution to stopping the violence will involve the entire community.
“If we’re going to stop the senseless violence in Omaha against our young people everyone and I mean everyone needs to take a part in it,” says Baldwin.
Behind the solidarity there’s a message to anyone involved; come forward and do the right thing.
“Stand up and silence the violence by voicing what they saw or what they heard because these kids can’t do this alone,” says Baldwin. 
Police have made no arrests in Eriana’s murder. Her funeral is Wednesday.