From OWENS COMMUNITY COLLEGE
A woman is shot dead by her current or former partner every 16 hours, according to data provided by the Brady national gun violence prevention organization.
“I got that dreadful call on my sister’s birthday,” said Owens Community College Admissions Representative Janice Hall, referring to November 7, 2021, when her son’s partner, Natasha Carlisle, was part of a double homicide in Toledo.
Carlisle and her best friend, Laura Luckey, were killed by Donte Gilmer, who was Luckey’s former partner. Gilmer was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A lifelong Toledo resident, Hall will take part in a gun violence panel discussion at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 in College Hall room 100 on the Owens Community College Toledo-area Campus. Sponsored by the college’s BIG Read program, the event is free and open to the public.
Hall described gun violence in America as “a club that no one wants to belong to, but it’s starting to get a large membership.”
She said losing Carlisle created multiple gaps for her family.
Her son, Jermaine Byrd, and Carlisle had a daughter, Tashayla, who celebrated her 18th birthday a week before her mother’s death. Hall also noted Byrd and Carlisle had been working on getting back together, which is why Hall said she still calls Carlisle her “daughter-in-law”.
“For my son, his half-brother was killed just a year before. It’s all of this inner-city living,” Hall said. “I hate for it to happen to anyone. If it’s not me, it’s somebody I know that it’s happened to. It’s such a shame. It’s destroying lives – just like drugs.”
The panel also includes:
- Malcolm Cunningham, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, City of Toledo
- Brysen Davis, Violence Interrupter with Save Our Community
- Judy Harbaugh, local leader for Moms Demand Action
- Sherin Henley, a gun violence survivor
- Rebecca Facey, Toledo City Prosecutor
- Mary Kruger, a gun violence survivor
