Annual Santa Cruz victims' march shows solidarity in numbers
More than 100 community members, including attorneys, law enforcement and victims' advocates, gathered this week in front of the Santa Cruz County Superior Court to carry their burdens both physically and figuratively.
Included among the attendees of this year's crime victims 2024 March of Solidarity, the 13th year since its inception locally, were those with stories like Aptos resident Shane Bell. Wednesday's march was Bell's third since his 25-year-old daughter was struck and killed by a motorist on Freedom Boulevard, where she was working on the side of the road for Davey Resource Group in March 2021.
Carrying a large postersized photograph attached to a wooden stake, Bell said the loss of his daughter and only child, Stephanie Bell, dramatically impacted both his and his wife's lives and caused him to retire early from his firefighter job in Alameda County. Bell said he has attended the march each year to return the love and support he said he received from the District Attorney's Office and his victim support advocate. Bell said he is saddened when, each year, new names are called out — many for victims in their earlier years, similar to his daughter, who died at 25.
“When they said they did this every year, we just had to do it, it was just something we had to do,” Bell said. “And it's not just for us, it's for the other victims' families, too. Because we all share this same kind of grief and the same story.”
The face of Erin Brummund's son, smiling playfully at the camera, was held high during Tuesday's march. Brummund, of Aromas, said she has been to each of the victim's marches since the first year — six years after son Christopher Carr, 23, was stabbed 13 times by an uninvited guest at a La Selva Beach house party in 2006. Carr was attending as a bouncer, his mother said. Leopoldo Alejandro Cortes was convicted of Carr's first-degree murder in 2008, then, after the original conviction was overturned on appeal, second-degree murder in 2014.
Carr's younger sister Reba Thomas, who was just 4 years old when he was killed, is dedicating her UCLA senior project in his memory, Brummund said. The dance major choreographed a performance in her brother's honor.
“You're going to get me to cry,” Brummund said while walking down Pacific Avenue past curious onlookers. “She knows of him, basically. But I tell her, he loved her so much. They were really close, she just doesn't remember.”
This year's march and reading of 118 names of local residents who have lost their lives to violence came amidst this year's National Crime Victims' Rights Week, which continues through Saturday. The Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Victim Witness Assistance Program-led remembrance involves a reading of the names and carrying dozens of photographs of homicide victims, with the permission of family, and includes cases stretching back as far as 1993, said program manager Laura Espindola.
“It's super important because this is the only place where people can come and connect with others that know what they're going through,” Espindola said. “Especially going through the criminal justice system.”
Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeff Rosell opened the evening ceremony and march, saying that the annual event is designed to remember victims who can no longer speak for themselves.
“We want to make sure that their voices are heard and that they are not forgotten,” Rosell said. “We want to promote healing, raise awareness and ensure that the focus is on victims.”