Our Prayers are with you Kerri

It was a serene Friday afternoon on the campus of Southern University, complemented by an electric blue sky and a brisk fall breeze that whistled a tune of anticipation for Southern’s game against Jackson State University. Twenty-year old Kerri Spears, an english major from Port Allen, was supposed to be sitting in her noon “Introduction to Literature” class, absorbed in a lecture and taking notes.
The previous weekend (Southern’s Homecoming) was supposed to be a celebration of her best friend’s 21st birthday and the following Monday was going to begin a week of tedious preparation for mid-term exams.
Oct. 11 would have been her first day working at a local boutique, a new job she had been extremely excited about for a while.
In a semester already marred by the specter of natural disaster, this week was supposed to be a blissful page in a chapter of this Southern girl’s college story.
Instead, Spears was one of three people shot during the homecoming game as she and her friends walked from A.W. Mumford Stadium to her car. A stray bullet wounded her leg and is still lodged near an artery.
As I spoke with her on the phone, I tried hard not to come off as a story-hungry DIGEST reporter who only wanted to probe her mind for information about the incident. I didn’t want to ask her anything that might have made her feel uncomfortable. I just wanted to offer my support and a listening ear if she wanted to talk.
“How are you feeling?” I asked her. I felt as if I’d just asked a dumb question.
“Physically, I’m in pain,” Spears said. Her voice, tender and melancholy, was like that of a hurt little girl. Her words nearly caused my heart to melt with sadness. “Mentally, I’m very emotional. I can’t really explain it.”
I understood what she meant.
“Every college party that I’ve ever been to and every time I’ve been to clubs like Plaza Live, there has always been a shooting,” she continued. “But this time, I wasn’t even in that (kind of) atmoshphere where things like that go down. I was on my school campus at a football game.”
We talked for a little over an hour. During that time, Spears painted the scene for me of that night. She told me about the fight that occurred moments before the shooting and the crowd of people running towards it to watch (ignorant, just ignorant). She told me about hearing a loud “POW-POW-POW,” and the stampede of people running away from the parking lot.
Spears described the feeling as a “hard kick” to her leg that sent her to the ground. She talked about how, as she was laying on the pavement being comforted by her friend, people were trying to get their cell phones that had fallen on the ground as they were running. She described to me the ambulance ride to the hospital.
“That was my first time ever being in a hospital,” Spears said.
She spoke of how she now has to take pain medicine and see a therapist. She said she is doubtful she will even be able to continue going to school this semester. She talked about how she has flashbacks of that night in the parking lot and I tried to see myself in that situation because it could have easily been me.
“People mostly only look at males getting shot,” Spears said. “This can happen to anybody.” She paused and then sighed. “My life could’ve been taken. The bullet could’ve hit me anywhere.”
Her voice lowered, and I heard and felt the depth of her pain in her next statement.
“I never ever thought in my life that this would happen to me.”
‘My God,’ I thought to myself. I asked her if she has received support since the incident, hoping to change the tone of the conversation. It worked because she then was upbeat.
“My room looks like a gift shop,” Spears said. My best friend has been there the whole time. Everybody ‘big’ from school has come to see me. Administrators, Justin (McCorkle, SGA president), Sharika (King, Miss Southern).”
She told me about how members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., delivered flowers and read a poem.
“The Omegas have heart and are some really good guys,” Spears said. She got excited when she spoke of her fellow classmates in the english department.
“Everybody in the english department is so close and they have really shown me love.”
“Is there anything you need or want?” I asked Spears.
“Just some company,” she quickly responded. “Anybody is welcome to come see me. I don’t like being by myself. I want people to know that I’m not angry. I’m not even angry at the guy that shot me. I forgive him.”
“So you see some positive coming out of this situation then?” I asked her.
“Yeah. I think this is God speaking to me. I’m seeking Him to see what He wants me to do,” Spears said. “I’m going to be a more powerful woman and I know that it will be used for His glory.”
She paused and I felt her smiling.
“When I think like that, I have inner peace,” she said.
‘Amen Queen,’ I thought afterwards.
In every life, there are defining moments that pull us from our zones of comfort, expose us to our deepest fears and challenge us to become greater than who we think we are meant to be. It is during those moments that our struggles and trials become the threads within the fabric of our testimonies. The lives of those who persevere become sagas of triumph.
Focus Only On Development.