SOUTH MIAMI, Fla. – Two girls, ages 7 and 10, were missing their dad, who died in South Miami on Wednesday. This Father's Day, and the many others to come, are going to be painful.
Larry Edwards, a former Florida A&M University student, left to work at the Cadillac Ranch restaurant in Kendall on Tuesday. He finished work late and stopped to hang out with a couple of friends early Wednesday morning.
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The 32-year-old never made it back home to his daughters.
Someone used a high-powered rifle to shoot at him and his friends at an apartment complex in South Miami's largely African-American neighborhood, where gun violence and poverty are still part of the city's painful history of segregation.
There was outrage after his death. Edwards was known in the neighborhood as a hardworking family man. Police have yet to catch his killer.
"I can't sleep," Edwards said on an early morning June 5th post on Facebook.
In May, he said, "21 hours overtime in one week $$$$." And in April, he said, "Finally, I get to relax, long shifts."
Edwards had just celebrated his eldest daughter's 5th grade graduation and he was proud. He loved to take them shopping and when he got them both mobile phones in January, he said, "Now they better call daddy every day."
His friend Virgil James said, "Daddy Little Girls."
A day after he died, Lori Ann Ealey went back to the post. The girls were holding up their new cell phones. But they won't be able to call him anymore.
"This picture really brings me to tears," she said.
Ealey is not alone in her pain. The City of South Miami will be co-hosting a town hall meeting to discuss gun violence on Tuesday night. There will be a 6 p.m. memorial where Edwards was killed at Southwest 59 Place and 67 Street. The town hall will be at 7 p.m at the St. John A.M.E. Church, 6461 SW 59 Place.
