MILWAUKEE — United by tragedy stemming from traffic violence, families in Milwaukee gathered Saturday for the city’s second annual World Day of Remembrance at PEAK Initiative.
The event, organized by the Coalition for Safe Driving MKE, offered attendees access to community resources, meditation, and ways to commemorate their loved ones with a focus on healing.
Roughly two years after Gloria Shaw’s only child Xavier Casanova Davis was killed, she found the courage to speak to the crowd of attendees about his tragic death.
“I’ll never forget when they came in and told me that he didn’t make it," she recalled. "I felt like the breath had been taken out of my body."
Davis was killed by a reckless driver while crossing the street in downtown Milwaukee. His mother said the person responsible hasn’t been brought to justice.
So, on what would’ve been his 26th birthday, Shaw is hoping to bring attention to her son’s cases by joining dozens of others in remembrance.
“We are all a part of a group that we didn’t ask to be a part of,” Shaw said. “However we show up for each other. We are resilient."
The Dunmore family was among those in the group called together by loss. Their loved one Talise Dunmore was killed less than two months ago by a drunk driver doing 80 mph on a 40 mph road.
Her sister Delisha Dunmore, and fellow pedestrian injured in the crash, is still recovering, both physically and mentally.
“I am not doing ok,” Delisha said, “but I think that—I would say, things like this, and healing, gatherings of this nature have really strengthened me, and not only me, my family.”
The Dunmores hope their story will push others to be safe and sober and to take a pledge inspired by Talise’s goals of self-improvement and dreams never fully realized.
“We may not have the same spirit of Talise but she keeps us going,” her mother Martha said. “So we are grasping every ounce of who she was and we will fight for her because her life was taken.”
The event also included encouragement from Mayor Cavalier Johnson, first responders, and other community leaders.
With support from the Coalition, the Mayor and Common Council adopted Vision Zero in 2022, the goal of zero traffic deaths or life-changing injuries by 2037.
Since then, the City has also made structural changes to numerous streets as they work to help reduce speeding, make streets safer, and save lives.
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