New memorial gives KC community sacred space to grieve children lost to violence

Teresa Perry remembers the night 3-year-old Erica Green was found dead.

The child who became known nationally as “Precious Doe” was killed in 2001 and found decapitated in a wooded area close to Hibbs Park in eastern Kansas City.

Perry, a community organizer part of the Precious Doe Committee formed to memorialize the child, and Alvin Brooks, founder of AdHoc Group Against Crime, were both with the girl’s mother as activists and community members searched the neighborhood for clues and canvassed houses for witnesses after Erica’s body was found.

But the child went unidentified for four years until authorities received a tip. Ultimately, her mother and stepfather were convicted of her murder in 2008.

On a sunny, windy Thursday afternoon at Hibbs Park this week, several decades later, a memorial in honor of little Erica and 123 other children who have died as a result of violent crime was unveiled on the young girl’s birthday, May 15, the day she would have been 28 years old.

Two 13-foot-tall obelisks made of black granite now tower over two benches that were also made in Erica Green’s honor, completing a memorial plaza in the park.

In a ceremony attended by families and loved ones of the deceased children and local government officials, Perry, one of the organizers of the memorial, was credited with her dedication to this project that began more than five years ago.

“They could have been a doctor. They could have been a lawyer, they could have been the president of the United States... but they didn’t get to live out the rest of their lives,” Perry said during the ceremony. “This memorial will stand for making a change.”

Loved ones of children killed in some of Kansas City’s most high-profile murders were in attendance. Attendees wore clothes honoring deceased children like Pamela Butler, Angel Hooper, and LeGend Taliferro, paying tribute and wiping tears away during the ceremony.

Mourning families, like the mothers of Angel and LeGend, have leaned on each other as they go through similar grieving processes, helping spread a loving, uplifting message about the importance of community.

But nothing will replace the children that loved ones have lost, they said.

“I haven’t processed it, to be honest, until recently,” Hooper’s mother, Charity Hooper, said. Her six-year-old daughter was the lone victim of a drive-by shooting in 2014. Hooper said getting into therapy recently has helped.

LeGend was shot while sleeping in his family’s apartment in 2020. His case reached the White House during President Donald Trump’s first term and sparked a federal anti-crime initiative, Operation LeGend.

Angel’s mother Hooper and LeGend’s mother, Charron Powell, have supported each other as they both navigate life without one of their children. Powell also said she hasn’t fully processed her son LeGend’s death. Next month will mark five years since he was killed.

“You love on each other, but it’s still hard at the same time to stay connected, because it’s like a wound that keeps reopening,” Powell said.

A sacred space

Nearly $300,000 from the city was allocated to build the memorial and was funded by the Public Improvements Advisory Committee from the city’s third and fifth districts, according to city officials. More than $170,000 remains in the budget for the memorial.

Perry requested that local community organizations like AdHoc send her the names of children who have died from violent crimes to send to the city. Names were also submitted by the public. More names to the memorial will be added as long as money is set aside for the project, Perry said.

Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw became emotional when she spoke about the lost children during the ceremony.

“This memorial will be a sacred space, a place to reflect, to breathe and to feel the presence of those that we’ve lost,” Parks-Shaw said. “But it also must be a place that moves us forward, to remind us of what’s really at stake here in Kansas City.”

Bittersweet was a word widely used during the event. Beyond the many prayers recited at the dedication, family members, community organizers, and government officials also made strong calls to action to end violence and conflict so children can grow up and live a full life.

“Crime happens, but keep these babies out of your beef,” Jackson County prosecutor Melesa Johnson said. “We have a responsibility to our young people, a responsibility that can never be lost and a responsibility that this memorial signifies.”

Hooper and Powell frequent the cemeteries where their children rest to be with them. This memorial, they said, will be a nice, new scenery to sit in as they remember and continue the grieving process of their children.

“I really feel like I can come here and just sit. Because the cemetery gets overwhelming,” Powell said. “It’s a memorial too. I can remember him.... and nobody’s gonna forget.”