Emotional Vigil Held for Crown Heights Anti-Gun Violence Activist Shot Dead in Miami

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Mourners gathered in Crown Heights on Tuesday night to remember the life of Lavon "Boo" Walker , a founding member of the anti-gun violence group Save Our Streets who was shot dead in Miami this past weekend.

According to the Miami New Times, Walker was shot Sunday morning at about 7 a.m. outside the South Beach restaurant News Cafe.

As of Tuesday night, CBS Miami reported that police had located a vehicle believed to be connected to Walker's murder, and that three people had been taken in for questioning.

"Lavon dedicated his life to working for peace and uplifting communities," S.O.S wrote on its website. "Since 2010 Lavon was out on the streets of his beloved Crown Heights working to end gun violence and participating in street interventions and mediations. To us in the office, he was our heart. He was always smiling, cracking jokes and keeping us honest. He saw the vision for a violence-free Brooklyn."

Video filmed at Tuesday's vigil outside S.O.S.'s Crown Heights Community Mediation Center showed attendees raising their fingers in the peace symbol while chanting organization motto "Stop shooting, start living!" and "Lavon, live on!"

In a second video, a speaker broke down in tears while saying that Walker's eight-year-old son, Lavon Jr., was at the vigil, and was wearing a "Stop Shooting, Start Living" t-shirt.

Walker had two sons, Lavon Jr. and Matthew, who is five months old. An online GoFundMe fundraiser set up to support Walker's family had raised nearly $3,000 as of Tuesday evening.

In a 2010 New York Times story about the organization, Walker explained how S.O.S. caseworkers engage those at risk of engaging in violent behavior and seek to mediate resolutions to disputes.

“We find out what their needs are — anything that’s going to gear them or shift them to a different mentality toward gun violence,” Walker told the paper. “We become like their bigger brothers, even closer than their fathers.”

A video posted Monday to the S.O.S Crown Heights Instagram account showed Walker giving an anti-violence speech in the neighborhood.

"There's too many shootings in Crown Heights," he said passionately. "This should not be acceptable in our community. Shootings should not be the new swag."

"We are all so much more deeply committed to ending gun violence in his name, and we hope others will do the same," S.O.S. Crown Heights director Amy Ellenbogen told the Miami New Times following Walker's death. "All of us are optimists that the plague of gun violence will come to an end, but situations like this are really heartbreaking."

Pictured at top: Lavon Walker, right, and his son Lavon, Jr. Image via GoFundMe