Aqeela Sherrills

We believe the same can be done with public safety, because racially equitable access to safety begins with community engagement.

Now, in 2003, my oldest son, Terrell, that was seven years old when I negotiated the treaty,

graduated from high school and was accepted into Humboldt State University.

The proudest day of my life, family, was driving this kid to school to start his first day as a college student.

Terrell was an inspiration to his younger siblings and the reason why I became a lifelong advocate for peace.

He came home from winter break.

He went to a party with some of his friends in an affluent neighborhood in L.A.

There, some kids from a local gang showed up at the party, mistook his red Mickey Mouse sweater for gang colors, and shot him to death.

Family, I'm no novice to violence.

I've witnessed it my entire life.

But nothing prepares you for the loss of your child.

But what I've come to understand is that peace is a journey and not a destination.

And that public safety is not just the absence of violence and crime, but the presence of well-being and the infrastructure to support victims and survivors in their healing journey.

Scaling safety is our healing journey.

And my continued commitment to Terrell and Oscar Guizar and Ronzel Poynter and the thousands like them, that their deaths were not in vain.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, I would say that where the wounds are in the personal life is where the gifts lie.

Sometimes we have to sit long and hard in the anguish and the pain of the things that we suffered and keep our eye on the prize, continue to look for the gift despite the circumstances around you.

the thing that I would encourage folks to do is to find someone that you know or don't know.