Friends and family of Omar Sykes gathered at Howard University Wednesday for a memorial service. Sykes, 22, was fatally shot July 4 in a robbery attempt.
A roundup of coverage of the memorial is below.
From the Washington Post:
More than 500 people gathered at Howard University’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel Wednesday evening to remember Omar Adam Sykes, a rising senior who was shot and killed during an attempted robbery just outside the campus July 4 .
Family, friends, Howard officials and Mayor Vincent C. Gray spoke about the student who had turned 22 days before his death.
“This just simply should not have happened,” Gray said to the packed chapel as he chastised federal lawmakers for not taking “sensible steps” to keep guns off the streets.
CBS:
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, who was in attendance at the memorial service, says he would like to rename the block of Fairmont Street where the shooting took place “Omar Sykes Street.”
Weeks before the shooting, Sykes’s home was broken into. Gray announced that an arrest has been made in that case, and promises an arrest will be made in his murder, as well.
Sykes’s family is working to establish a scholarship in Omar’s name. Donations can be made here.
