Tyler Perry is paying for the funeral of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, a little girl who was shot and killed in Atlanta on July 4, not far from the location where Rayshard Brooks was killed weeks ago.
According to CNN, Turner and her mother were riding in their family car when “a group of individuals illegally placed barricades” in the parking lot the vehicle pulled into. Several shots were fired into the car, and Turner’s mother drove to the hospital, where Secoriea was pronounced dead.
“I’m outraged today because I’d rather be paying for 8-year-old Secoriea Turner’s college than her funeral,” the entertainment mogul told People in an exclusive statement, adding “when does this end?”
“Enough is enough,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a press conference on Sunday regarding Turner’s death and the deaths of three others in a separate Atlanta gunfire incident. “We have talked about this movement that is happening across America at this moment in time when we have the ears and the interest of people across this country and across this globe who are saying they want to see change.”
Elsewhere in his statement to People, Perry also explained that people are people, no matter their skin color, and he wants to help those who need it most.
“Who said that outrage has to choose a side?” he said. “When so many Black people like George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks were killed, I was outraged and did what I could to help their families.” Perry funded Brooks’ funeral in June after he was killed by a white police officer. He will also reportedly pay for the future college education of Brooks’ four children.
“When a white police officer was shot in the head trying to stop a shoplifter in a suburb outside of Atlanta, I was outraged and I did what I could to help him and his family,” Perry continued. In 2018, he paid the medical expenses for Matthew Cooper, a Georgia police officer who was shot in the head while trying to stop a shoplifter. He has recovered from the incident and returned to work in May.
“...When we are killing each other, including our innocent children, I am outraged,” Perry concludes. “It doesn’t matter what color wrong comes in, wrong is wrong.”
Atlanta is not the only city experiencing troubling upticks in gun violence. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot condemned gunfire surges during a news conference on Monday after incidents grew during the July 4 weekend, marking a third consecutive weekend in which children were among those killed by gunfire in the city. New York City is also experiencing growing numbers of gun violence concerns. The New York Times reports that 64 people were shot in the Big Apple over the weekend, and 10 of those people succumbed to their injuries. There were 205 shootings in the month of June in NYC.