An appeal for justice
Relatives of mom killed in Wayside Park gunfire challenge any who know ID of shooter to step up
Say something. Step up. Do the right thing. It was a theme repeated several times Wednesday evening at a candlelight vigil held at Wayside Park for Sha Neva Riley, a mother of four who was shot and killed in that very park just four days earlier.
“Somebody needs to say something,” said Clifford Riley, the victim’s brother, who called out those in the community who know the identity of the killer or killers.
“It’s traumatic,” Riley said. “We just want justice.”
Numerous people were present in the park Saturday when a fusillade of rounds were sprayed into the green space that stretches from Ming Avenue to Belle Terrace. After the shooting, investigating officers found more than 100 shell casings from various firearm calibers.
Say something. Step up. Do the right thing.
“Silence is acceptance,” Wesley Davis told the gathering of about 150.
The Black community has been silent too long, he said. People who know or suspect the identity of the shooters need to step forward.
Davis knows the pain of such loss. His own son, Wendale Davis, was just 16 when he was shot to death by an unknown assailant in southeast Bakersfield in 2006. The nonprofit Wendale Davis Foundation, formed soon afterward, provides mentoring services to young people and adults. More importantly, it works to change the pattern of gang violence that has shattered families and neighborhoods in what feels like a never-ending loop.
“This is sick,” he said, “for anybody to ride through and shoot into a crowd.”
Say something. Step up. Do the right thing. Sha Neva was just 32, said her mother, La Sheka Hendrix, who at first could barely speak at the vigil. But then, she gathered her strength, and the love for her daughter came pouring out.
“Her kids were with me,” she said, remembering that terrible Saturday. Sha Neva had gone to the park to celebrate someone’s birthday. Mother and daughter had just talked on the phone — then minutes later, Hendrix got the news in another phone call that her daughter had been shot.
She immediately rushed to the scene.
“She was my best friend,” she said. “Every day. I’m going to miss her.”
Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer offered her support and condolences at the vigil.
“It’s a loss to the family,” she said. “But it’s also a loss to the community.
“This shouldn’t be tolerated,” Zimmer said. And when people in the community have information that
might bring the shooters to justice, they must try to help.
Say something. Step up. Do the right thing.
The Bakersfield Police Department said no arrests have been made and that no suspect information was made available early on.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call Detective Randy Petrisat at 326-3654, the BPD at 327-7111 or Kern Secret Witness at 322-4040.
Wesley Davis III, the elder Davis’ son, acknowledged that many in the Black community haven’t been dealt “the best cards.” Too many sons have absent fathers.
Despite those trials, the community must come together as one to fight this plague of violence.
“After this candlelight vigil, their pain is still going to be there,” he said of Sha Neva’s family. “After the funeral, their pain is still going to be there.”
Say something. Step up. Do the right thing.