OZARK, Ala. (WDHN) — An Ozark neighborhood is remembering the life of a loved one in a special way. The loved one lost his life to gunfire 10 days ago.
The rain didn’t stop more than 50 balloons from being released in the Don Circle Community in Ozark on Saturday.
To honor the life of Anthony Gray.
“He will always be remembered as one of the purest people I’ve ever encountered,” Friend of Gray, Amber Siples said.
“Ant was a friend not just to me, but to the whole community of Don Circle,” Friend of Gray, Andre Miles said.
Gray was shot and killed at the Jasmine Hill Apartment Complex in Ozark earlier this month.
Woodrow Barnes is charged with his murder.
Recently he was released from jail on bond, which friends and family feel is not right.
“It just doesn’t make no sense. It doesn’t,” the mother of one of Gray’s children, Searra Allen said.
“They are saying it was self-defense, but at the end of the day, I don’t believe in my heart that it was self-defense,” Gray’s cousin, Lezeric Jeffries said.
Gray was a son, a father, a friend, and a man who could make a frown turn upside down.
“He was one of the nicest people you will ever meet walking on this earth. He would do anything for anybody,” Allen said.
“He taught me how to be a father and how to take care of your kids and how to love them,” Friend of Gray, Marcus Miles said.
Each person gripped the string of the balloon and then off the balloons went into the Dale County sky.
Friends say his favorite words were ‘honey’ and ‘stay blessed.’
“I wasn’t able to go to my best friend’s funeral because my first cousin shot him,” Gray’s best friend, Alize Martin said. “I didn’t just lose one person that day I lost two that day. The situation is ugly, but at the end of the day I lost Anthony, who was my best friend and I love him to death. He has kids and we are all going to get together to support them and make sure we are there for them.”
The message from Gray’s loved ones is words of stopping the violence and of justice for Anthony Gray.
“Stop the violence,” Darius Miles said. “These guns and this thug and everybody want to be a gangster. It’s not helping the family.”
“We will get justice for you baby,” Siples said. “I promise.”
