TRENTON, Mo. — Anjelo Delile awoke on Easter Sunday to the horrific images from his hometown in Sri Lanka, where a series of attacks left at least 290 people dead and another 500 injured.
"It just really shocked me," said Delile, who now lives in Trenton, Missouri. "I was shaking."
Delile grew up in Colombo, where his family still lives. They were in church services when the attacks occurred and it took Delile six hours to get in touch with his loved ones.
"Everyone took off running in panic," Anjelo's wife, Mary Delile, said. "They didn't know if their church was going to get hit."
Thankfully, the Deliles learned that his family's place of worship was safe, but another church and three hotels in Columbo were targeted.
"They were needing a lot of blood at the hospital, because of all the patients and people were lining up all over the streets to donate blood," Mary said.
The same scenes playing out in the news impacted Ashan Latif.
"It kind of makes you sick that people can't go out and celebrate their holy days," said Latif, who is president of the Crescent Peace Society, a nonprofit that works to enhance the understanding of Muslim cultures in the Kansas City area.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sri Lanka's defense minister blamed religious extremists. That prompted Latif to speak out.
"There's a lot of people that the conclusion is that it would be someone who is Muslim," Latif said, "So, we want to make sure people know that this is not something we condone or support. This is completely against what our religion teaches us."
That's a message the Peace Society finds itself repeating too frequently.
"We just have to keep doing it," he said. "It's frustrating, but we want to be the ones to make sure people know how we feel."
Meanwhile, the attacks have the Deliles worried about how safe Sri Lanka is for their family.
"We want to take our son to meet his family, all of his family back home," Mary said.
"And go to church, especially," Anjelo said.
