hello and welcome to trenton now i am your host for the show my name is patricia hall and with me today i have two mothers who have suffered a tragic loss due to gun violence within the city of trenton they're going to share their stories with us so let us welcome to the show regina thompson jenkins and glenda scott torres or tourist scott excuse me please ladies welcome to the show thank you so much for giving us your time today i'd like the two ladies to talk a little bit september twenty second two thousand and twelve ok and not eighteen days later i guess you were having the vigil and unfortunately your son was also gunned down the thing with the two situations is they're both unsolved murders correct correct ok glenda could you talk to us a little bit about what you've been going through what your story is the muslim benjamin was twenty three years old at the time lonely son also he was going to school for game design he was they were my parents at the time only because my their suffer from parkinson's disease and he wanted to help take care of home that evening he was outside in a quark smoking a cigarette and someone drove down the street stated you both have established foundations in your son's honor the trade lane foundation can you tell us a little bit about what it is that this foundation is doing or what it has done  and we have started two programs under the wings of the foundation and we just received our first grant from i am trying to congratulation thank you for the sisters aspire sisters girls mentor and group and we have project men's my husband did a men's brunch and february so the men they laugh they cried they bought it it was a great experience your husband was there yes he was yes yes he was and he did speak on how one a great experience that it was glinda your foundation for your son ben's way didn't you tell us a little bit about that it took me a little longer than regina to find my way but i wanted to start it with the purpose of for my grandson when he gets old enough to find out about his father and he searches for his name i didn't want the first thing to come up was the seventeenth and twelve he was more than that he was very giving he was very sweet loving so i thought to myself what can i do for someone else not to go through this and also build upon who benjamin was his life not the way he died so after praying on it we saved money it was for reward but then i say what is that going to bring this not going to bring him back maybe giving to others will help alleviate was going on in the city so i story ben's way which means believe education nurture sixty so if you believe in your children you surround them with the importance of education and opportunities to grow in a nurturing environment i believe they will succeed and not be a byproduct the what's going on in today's society that's wonderful that's wonderful so if people wanted to give or to help with either one of the foundations can you give us a little bit of information how to get in touch with you for ben's way we have a website ben's way dot org and you could go in there get information how to contact us  and his story is on this website ok and what are some of the things that you actually do with the money that you received for me we gave out five scholarships in four years  my goal this year is five thousand dollars one student the ultimate goal is ten thousand one student and these are students who are going into college yes ok high schools ok and glenda what are some of the things that you're doing right now i've sponsored two children to go to boyd program in the summer which helps them expand their vision past tryna have different experiences and also have positive male role models which some people are lacking some kids need that extra because it does take a village it takes more than just one person so they be exposed to i really support his program and i think there it would be beneficial to children to have something to do instead to be idle and maybe get into trouble the ultimate goal right now i just got my father wants the three in june been financing everything on my own so i want to do a scholarship in his name for game design to any technical school or mercer county where he was attending and also help support other programs in the community by assisting with finances for other children to attend due to financial restraints they can't pay the tuition or or unable to go to other things but it is very important to support our children and guide our children and that's why we're doing and i've kind of come together because if we don't start doing things differently now we won't have anybody to have our mission accomplished to support or they have bill three six two six and bill three seven one eight can you give us a little bit of information about what this effort is about and what the two bills are financed the first bill legislation three six two six is to protect the identity of any witnesses or victims coming forward to testify on a violent crime up until trial so it won't be won't be open to public record so their names will come out in the paper or if the police get a name they are not at liberty to discuss it and then it's published and they can face intimidation or threats so as to protect that they were says with unsolved crimes people are afraid to come forward money is not going to save you so even when the reward is substantial people still won't come forward witness protective order for witnesses that come forward or someone thinks they have information try scintillate them under the mystic law right now is very hard to get a protective order unless you have defined a relationship with the perpetrator but there is over see there in have them allowed to get a protective order so let me just see if i understand correctly there's actually the opportunity for someone to oprah information before children are a victim too and she showed us these bills so we went zero and change that work and posted the first bill just to get community support lampson and get the word out about this bill because we as mothers with children we don't know who and we don't know wherever know who but if we had the opportunity to down and then known that there are persons putting their life in jeopardy we won't want to know right so just to have that protection for them to feel safe that they can come forward if that's what they wish to do and regina incarnation as exactly what these two bills are going to be dealing with can you talk a little bit about see something say something sure  really strong force and basically it's it's this tragedy that has brought you together correct never known her there my life after working together and how was that you know  i'm assuming it must be a little bit because you know you're you help each other to get through ok because i can tell you sitting here i see a great deal of strength coming from your tragedy and  i think that you both should be extremely commended and i thank you for coming out and talking you know with us this today just to give this information but i do want to press as far as the two bills go what is it that the public can do to help ensure that these bills get pushed through go unchanged or and change don't work changed or and research the bills thirty six have a black tie gala oh wonderful yes ok and to find information about that they can go to the website go to the website tickets are actually out right now ok yes and give a little bit of information about the black  line yes ok yes all righty wonderful well we are going to take a little bit of a break right now we're going to bring the mothers back we're going to talk a little bit more about their foundations and the work that they're doing as well as bringing in the third party reverend pastor mark broach from the trenton deliverance center and how the three are working together to push this effort forward and against gun violence we'll be right back and welcome back to trenton now again i am your host patricia hall and with us this evening we have two mothers who are speaking against gun violence after they lost their sons to gun violence in the city of trying to and we have glenda torres with us and we have regina jenkins thompson who was also here but joining us for the second half is pastor broach from the trenton deliverance center and he's also the president of the concerned pastors of trenton so i want to welcome you all back and welcome pastor brooch thank you for joining us thank you can you talk a little bit about your affiliation with these women and how you became involved with their causes sure of what i was placed in a position that as the president of the concert passive trip imbecility there were certain things that i wanted them to be known as being concerned about so one of those things  was the violence that was going on in the city of trenton and the mothers that were suffering the loss of their loved ones yes now you were familiar with mothers who had lost children to violence within but can you explain your personal relationship with regina and with trey ok regina and i used to work together as a school teachers at that time it was junior one  so you got to see trey basically grow up i did not very closely but i did get an opportunity to see him grow yes so can you explain that moment when you received the phone call to come up to the hospital  i can share a little i was very initially i was concerned about all the violence that was going on in trenton but it was happening outside of my circle but they would begin to be closer and closer to home  it was very disturbing to me yes ok and regina had called you up to come to the hospital and what was that like for you i mean how did you you were also dealing with a loss and so how were you able to you know help the family i began to look at the loss of trade and all the children that have lost their lives after him as personal it really affects  as it should affect everyone because it is a fabric of our community of someone that was lost from our community absolutely and you started a group can you talk a little bit about that group  ok the group is called not of my neighborhood and the reason why that came about is because there was a young lady that was murdered right down the street from the church where i wear a pastor and i was greatly offended because it was so close to where i pastor so we were having a a rally right where she was slain and i began to talk about how how i was offended and how it troubled my spirit and someone said in my ear exactly is this happening in your neighborhood and i said no it can't happen in my not in my neighborhood not in my neighborhood so from that we began to call our group not of my neighborhood not of my neighborhood includes violence trash or any other thing that should not be in or or neighborhood ok ok and the three organizations for the most part are basically together against gun violence within our community and you know your efforts have placed you in such a position where you're giving a voice you're putting a face actually to the voice of the plight against gun violence and i know that the two mothers you had mentioned earlier about you were giving the vigil when her son was actually killed but glenda you had actually attended a program when this is how the two of you actually meant can you talk about that just a little bit from a it was a few weeks after benjamin was killed my husband said we're going to go to support to a support group for parents who lost their children and i think at that time he was just trying to find somewhere for me to go and just get some support get some resources because it was tragic to everybody it was devastating and he didn't know what to do he didn't know what to do with me i didn't know what to do it was a fall and the slowly is lifting but it's still very hard to deal with so just to get that support from others who have experienced it because unless you go through it you really don't understand the pain and people say oh i'm sorry for your pain i can't even imagine i would always say you don't want to and you can it unless you've been there so just haven't has a poor in resources and i went there and they give you an orientation and i think i was just saying they're hearing we're not listening because i was forced to go regina came to me and said are you the mother of benjamin and i said i am she said you know when he was killed we were doing a vigil and we stopped and i had to c because i was there where you were and how i can see she was just caring for me and i'm looking at her how can you care for me when you just experience or a loss so it was it was just that someone else could feel that pain and had it in her just to reach out to me has brought us closer together so sense that night at compassionate friends the two of you have just been a force joined together inseparable that nicole inseparable one thing that i have noticed with all of you is your spirituality and how you draw from that can you just regina talk about just a little bit of how your faith has pulled you through  this it was i was trying ever you know you do you say why why me you question and you know he said you know for me it was  i did everything i thought i didn't thing right with him you know what did i do so bad in my life that she would take my only child so i prayed and he showed me the real the mothers who lost their only son violence well i found that it's not so much about what i say many of these mothers just want to be heard they just want to share they need someone that has a the ability yes faith wise initially when they lose their sons faith has to come around you know it takes time for them to really realize that the same god that brought them through other issues will bring that to that as well absolutely and i know it's very difficult but one of my favorite scriptures is all things work together for the good of them that love the lord and a according to his purpose and i think what stands out tremendously with the both of you with all of you is that you have been called and this tragedy in your life is actually working together for the good for the greater good and i just really want to take a moment and commend you both for your strength for your courage for your passion for the ability to be able to get up in the morning and make it all work for the greater good so the way i want to end this show is we've been talking a great deal about what has happened since the death of your sons i want to talk about their life let's end with giving them life ok so we'll see we'll start with glenda if you could just talk about benjamin was a great kid in spite of i had a very young you know too much about him but when i had him my responsibility was to do everything for  to give him everything i had to sacrifice and show him better and better for him so in spite of the relationship with his father he had a lot of support a lot of love male influences because it does take a village so you sacrifice you do everything right and you know you do every so you have to do because boys can be very difficult and they come out and then you wait for their reward to see them grow to see them fall in love to see them get married to have children too i wanted to be the mother the groom which i'm never going to be all that was taken from you so then you become angry in the process you go through so much i was blessed with a grandson so that is my purpose now to have benjamin live live through him he's going to know his father his own know who he was the type of man he was he will help you he was even though he was big he would take care of everybody that's just his heart he had a  even show me to forgive he was very forgiving even prior to his death he told his father forgive you for not being there which i haven't done yet so he is he was just my example today so after a couple years of being angry asked and you know that's not what he would want and i know he would say oh my mother they don't know what they did because that's what you call mom of the room they don't know what they took from you you have they don't also forgive so i'm trying to forgive and i'm trying to give back so another person will go through with and with so his son can grow up and say in spite of he was taken from me i still got his love and he has done so much good for others so my life well i just want to say that there are many ways to educate the classrooms there's not just have four walls and not just see you but all of you have absolutely stepped out of the four walls and you are making sure that the public the community is educated in gun violence in violence period within your community and again i just have to thank you all  so much for all of your efforts and all of your selflessness and all of the time that you are putting towards this effort i do want to just take a moment for us to realize  have pictures of your sons and that they did not die in vain their legacy will live on through the efforts of your hands and that god can only be pleased that he can only be pleased so that brings us to the end of this program and again i just want to thank you all for sharing your time your stories your tears with us this is today thank you so much for coming out and for all of you that are watching this is the close of this particular program of trying to now again i am your host patricia hall and please please visit us on twitter please visit our facebook page and our website which is trying to now t v dot com hit us up like us share us and thank you very much