KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Five years after a drive-by shooting took 10-year-old Machole Stewart's life, her friends and family are using the anniversary of her death to spread some good.
"They destroyed our life, they destroyed our family," Krystal DePriest, Stewart's grandmother, said. "She was 10 years old. She didn't deserve that."
Every year since Machole Stewart was killed, her family gathers on her birthday and the day she was taken too early, to hold a vigil and keep her memory alive.
"This year, we did it a little bit different," DePriest said. "We put a little twist in it because, you know, so many of our children are dying. We are losing so many babies to senseless violence. We wanted to give back to the community and what better way to do it?"
On Sunday, the group fed dozens of children in the Sycamore Grove Apartments, near 18th and Vine streets, a hot meal and passed out 200 treat bags. But they also spent quality time together.
"Because you never know what someone is going through in these apartments," DePriest said. "Every day when I get up I have to look at my granddaughter's picture, I have to say, 'Good morning,' and talk to her on a picture, I have to go to her grave site, sit down in the grass and talk to her... and it's not fair."
No suspects have been brought to trial in connection to Machole’s death.
DePriest said she will never stop fighting for justice.
