Hundreds attend prayer rally for murdered Tupelo High School graduate

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – Hundreds attended a time of prayer honoring the life of a 17-year-old who was killed earlier this week in Tupelo.

Tiara Dancer was gunned down Tuesday evening. She was with a group of people watching a fight in the Haven Acres neighborhood.

On Friday morning, her classmates, friends and teachers gathered to encourage and comfort one another.

Tiara Dancer graduated from Tupelo High School in December and planned on walking with her class of 2020 during graduation ceremonies in May.

Many of her classmates, friends, teachers and those who didn’t even know her showed up for the time of prayer organized by the Tupelo High School chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“This Friday, instead of doing our usual FCA, we held a prayer rally for this situation to bring community together and show we trust God, even in tragedies, that He has a plan and something good can come out of that,” said Nathan Keen, president of the THS Chapter of FCA.

Members of FCA read scripture verses, while pastors and counselors encouraged young people in the crowd to not seek vengeance, but instead, find ways to help one another deal with the tragic events that claimed Tiara’s life.

“Main message I wanted young people to hear, is sometimes in tragedies, they may take the approach that life is short, so I’m just going to live it without regard and I really want to challenge them to reverse that thinking, and think about living life more intentionally and they are necessary and they have a purpose,” said Valerie Fields, from Crosspointe Ministries.

“Tiara Dancer would love for them to go on with their lives, and be productive citizens in the U.S. and also to hold their head up, move forward and to cherish and remember her life by doing something positive and also support one another,” said Pastor Clarence Parks, of the Temple of Compassion and Deliverance.

Pastor Parks, other clergy and civic leaders will hold a community awareness rally in late February at Gumtree Park. Pastor Parks said the hope and prayer is the rally will spark ongoing discussion and action on critical issues such as parental involvement in a child’s life, and entertainment and social media choices and habits among young people.

Funeral arrangements for Tiara Dancer are incomplete, but will be announced later by N.L. Jones Funeral Directors.

Categories: Local News

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