Following the horrific shooting of a 12-year-old girl in Connecticut, a family is coming to terms with losing a second member to gun violence having lost their son just over a decade ago.
On Thursday, April 20, Se'Cret Pierce- was struck in the head by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting while sat in a parked car in Hartford, Connecticut.
The middle school student was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. That night, her grandmother, Janet Rice, a crisis response specialist, rushed to hospital as she often does when tragedy strikes in her community.
En route, she received a phone call which would change her life. The young girl in the Connecticut hospital fighting for her life was Rice's granddaughter.
Not only that, but Se'Cret was in fact the child of the son Rice had lost to gun violence in 2012.
Se'Cret died on Friday morning, April 21. She had been just two years old when her dad, Shane Oliver, 20, was shot and killed in the autumn of 2012 - just a few miles from where Se'Cret was shot.
The family had already had their world ripped apart, losing their son to gun violence. Now, they're having to come to terms with losing their granddaughter, his child, to the same brutality.
In a text on Sunday, April 23, Rice said: "Never in a million years did I expect to respond to a call for my 12-year-old granddaughter.
"I am ANGRY, HEARTBROKEN, and NUMB."
Se'Cret's grandfather, Reverend Sam Saylor, has been fighting against gun violence ever since he lost his son in 2012. He now sits as National Vice President of the National Gun Victims Action Council - a Chicago-based coalition of gun violence victims.
Even before his son's death, Rev. Saylor knew how gun violence was destroying his community, he called it a numbing regularity in too many neighbourhoods.
He would join families at gatherings and vigils to pray with bereaved families. On Saturday, April 22, he joined friends and family in Hartford to hold a vigil for his own granddaughter.
"It's just trauma on top of trauma," he said. Never expecting "that I would be in this parade of pain again.",
During the vigil, Se'Cret's mother, Bianca Pierce, sat draped in a blanket, crying with her head down. She was wearing a lanyard with pictures of her daughter, and the words 'FOREVER SE'CRET.'
Thursday's shooting was Hartford's seventh homicide of 2023, having left two adults and a child injured as well as Se'Cret dead.
Speaking at the vigil, Rev Saylor said: "We had one of these vigils. We asked the community to stand up for justice, and a wonderful thing happened: People poured out, in an unprecedented way, information to the police.
"And they worked long and hard to bring something that we've never experienced, that is fleeting in this community."
He continued: "And at that time I wanted street justice, I wanted quick justice. But because of the hard work of the community and the commitment of the police department and elected officials, we got something better than street justice or quick justice: we got sweet justice.
"We want that kind of reality for Bianca and Se'Cret and this family."
Shane Oliver's killer was an acquaintance, now serving 40 years in prison. On the day of Oliver's death, he had left home to collect money for a car he had sold.
Like so many gun-related deaths, it all began with an argument. Words became heated, and a gun was drawn. Oliver tried to run, but didn't get far before two bullets were fired into his back. He died just hours later.
But the family did not let their son's death stop them, and became fierce campaigners against gun violence.
Speaking at a gathering in 2022, Saylor said: "The cries of those children, the countless children that are yet to die, these lives are crying out from the grave saying 'do right, do right by me while you still have time'.
"My son was a cripple, he couldn't run fast enough from the assassin's bullet. But I've dedicated my life to run for him. I'm running for him and every other child that wants to live in America, free.
"I'm asking for your help, call your congressman, tell them 'this is the day that we must change'."
Kim A Snyder, a documentary film director, became acquainted with Rice and Saylor while working on her award-winning film about Newtown. She explained how Saylor pushed for stricter gun laws, trying to shine a spotlight on the urban violence that has taken so many young Black lives.
"Then it was his own kid," Snyder said.
Executive director of CT Against Gun Violence, Jeremy Stein, says "we've got to do more" - despite the state having some of the lowest death rates from guns, according to the Violence Policy Center.
He called the latest shooting "incredibly personal" because of Rice's connection to the group - having worked as the outreach coordinator for CT Against Gun Violence.
"She lost her son, Shane," said Stein, "and now Shane's daughter has been murdered - both by gun violence."
The suspects in Se'Cret's killing appeared to target three males - 16, 18, and 23, who were standing on a pavement in a residential street not far from downtown Hartford on the fateful Thursday night. They were wounded, but all three were expected to survive.
Hartford's Mayor, Luke Bronin, urged the survivors to cooperate with police, saying at a press conference on Friday, April 21, they could help lead police to Se'Cret's killers.
"A tragedy like this ripples outward in a community and affects so many," he said.
