City-Wide-Prayer Service remembers police chase shooting victims - 19 Action News|Cleveland, OH|News, Weather, Sports

City-Wide-Prayer Service remembers police chase shooting victims

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A City-Wide-Prayer Service at Southeast Seventh Day Adventist Church in Cleveland A City-Wide-Prayer Service at Southeast Seventh Day Adventist Church in Cleveland
CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) -

In Cleveland Tuesday night it was called "A City-Wide-Prayer Service" in remembrance of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

In November the pair lead police on a high speed chase that now has the department's policies and practices under an extreme microscope.

"The main message here today is this is a call for peace, a call for justice, a call for healing during this great tragedy," said Pastor Jerome Hurst of the Southeast Seventh Day Adventist Church

We asked the question many have asked already: Why an event like this for two suspects who started the chase to begin with that lead to their death in a shower of police gun fire?

"There are so many things out there that I wouldn't even want to take this opportunity to even speculate on why it happened," said Hurst. "It happened, so we must at least as we said try and maintain some peace within the city."

The sister of Timothy Russell is a member of the church and she declined our request to talk to us about the event.

Although they didn't plan the event with this in mind, it was held on the birthday of Martin Luther King Junior and Pastor Hurst says that's very fitting. "That's what Martin Luther King was about. Peace, nonviolence."

Copyright 2013 WOIO. All rights reserved.

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