Mourners remember 10-year-old murder victim: K'Von 'took the bullet for us'
PETERSBURG – The city’s youngest homicide victim in 55 years was laid to rest Thursday following a funeral where the eulogist implored communities of faith to take back their original missions of promoting safe havens, especially for Petersburg’s children.
“This cannot become normal,” Rev. Lamont Hobbs, pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, told several hundred mourners gathered for K’Von Morgan’s memorial service. “Look around this building. These babies are growing up traumatized. And we as adults cannot even articulate what we’re feeling. So how can we expect them as children to even articulate what they are feeling.”
K’Von was 10 years old when he was killed June 17 inside the bedroom of his family’s apartment in Pecan Acres. Petersburg Police say the bullet that killed the child came from a nearby gun battle, piercing the wall of his bedroom and striking him as he and a buddy were watching movies.
Many of the mourners inside Metropolitan Baptist were kids. They were either classmates of his at Pleasant’s Lane Elementary School or friends from his neighborhood. Several of them sobbed audibly during the 90-minute service.
As Beyonce’s song, “Heaven Couldn’t Wait for You” played over the sound system, attendees filed past K’Von’s open casket. He was dressed in a suit and bow tie with a ball cap at his hands and family photos surrounding him. Floral arrangements of different shapes and sizes lined the front of the sanctuary.
Programs handed out featured a photo of the little video-game enthusiast wearing a Fortnite T-shirt on the front and an image of the Pokémon character Pikachu on the back. Throughout the program were photos of K’Von at various stages of life.
On the back of a program was a message from his mother, Carrie Friar: “I honestly don’t know how Imma live life without you, baby, but I do know that I will never ever stop fighting for justice for you. Never.”
As the immediate family entered the sanctuary, Friar began loudly sobbing as she leaned over her son. His dad, Perry Morgan, knelt and kissed the child’s forehead. Later, before the white casket was closed, the mother and father walked up for one final goodbye.
One of the mourners in the procession collapsed briefly as they passed the casket.
Messages of sympathy were read from Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Virginia, Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham and the Petersburg School Board.
K’Von’s music teacher since kindergarten at Pleasant’s Lane Elementary, Ashley Pettis, thanked his family for “letting me love on my baby for as long as I did.”
In his eulogy, Hobbs talked about how unfair it was that K’Von’s light “was snuffed out and he did not get to live his life.” He also said the boy “took a bullet for us” that night as a way of protecting us from the gun violence that has rocked Petersburg for so many years. The bullet that hit K’Von could have hit anyone in that sanctuary or even in Petersburg.
“How did we get here?” Hobbs said, referring to the funeral. “A mother is not supposed to bury her child. A father is not supposed to bury his son.”
Young men are walking around with handguns “trying to be ‘gangsta,’” Hobbs said, and the church “has gotten scared” of confronting those gangstas. Gangstas are nothing but armed bullies, and Hobbs said he was not scared of bullies.
"You ain't built for prison," Hobbs said, speaking to the bullies. "You're 130 pounds dripping wet, and you think you're gangsta because you got a gun."
In a comment that drew loud cheers from the mourners, Hobbs added, "Bubba's gonna have his way with you in prison."
Like many of the others who spoke before him, Hobbs stressed the importance of people with information coming forward "so that more K'Vons don't happen." He even took time to address the shooter or shooters, essentially telling to man up
"If you're big enough to pull the trigger, then you need to be big enough to do the time," he said.
He noted that if K’Von’s death had been the result of police actions, “then we’d all be out in the streets” calling for change. But because it and so many other homicides are not police-related, then no one wants to do anything about it.
“Little boys and girls should not be dying in our community,” Hobbs said.
Following the service, K’Von was buried in Wilkerson Memorial Cemetery. Mourners planned to release doves at the graveside.
K’Von was the seventh of nine homicide victims in Petersburg so far this year. Since he died, two others have lost their lives in the city – one to a shooting on East Wythe Street, and the other beaten to death on Berkeley Avenue in Petersburg’s Walnut Hill area.
Watch K'Von Morgan's funeral service on J.M. Wilkerson's YouTube page.
More: 'Time for us to fight back': Pecan Acres holds vigil for slain 10-year-old
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Mourners gather to say goodbye to murdered Petersburg child
