KALAMAZOO, MI — “Is that where that guy got shot last week?” a man asks.
 
Between drags on their cigarettes Wednesday evening, two older men on the corner of North Street and Paterson Avenue respond, “Yeah,” and “That’s it.”
 
They gesture down Park Street to a place where more than 200 people filled the street. Led by local ministers, that spirited swarm of people says prayers in the area where a 21-year-old man was shot and killed on April 24.
 
“When we were young, we handled things with these,” the taller and grayer man says, holding up two balled fists and taking a fighting stance. With a cigarette still in hand, the other man agreed, saying he doesn’t know why young guys ­­try to settle a score these days by shooting one another.
 
Rev. Chavez Marshall, Rev. Addis Moore, and Rev. Lenzy Bell inspire people inside Mt. Zion Baptist Church before the start of the Wednesday, April 30, 2025 Dominion Walk in Kalamazoo.While police say the rate of violent crimes was down by 12.6 percent last year (including a 55 percent reduction in homicides and a 48.7 percent drop in confirmed shots-fired incidents), the City of Kalamazoo has seen four fatal shootings already this year. That is too many, according to Kalamazoo’s Northside Ministerial Alliance, which hosted a walk through part of the Northside Neighborhood on Wednesday evening to call attention to the need to stop the violence. The walk included residents, pastors, community leaders, teachers, and many who have already been impacted in some way by gun violence.
 
“There are individuals who know shooters,” Rev. Addis Moore says, referring to young men who carry guns and are prone to use them to settle their differences. “They know people who have guns. But they’re not telling them to put them down.”
 
Rev. Addis Moore, senior pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, said “The church has to have a response to gun violence.”Moore, who is pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church and president of Kalamazoo’s Northside Ministerial Alliance, says the Alliance hopes to inspire people who know what’s happening to use their influence.
 
“There’s some mama, some grandmama, somebody every shooter listens to,” Moore says. “And that person can tell them to put down the gun, and they will.”
 
He says he wants people to know that others are aware of the impact gun violence has, that they care, and that “Our prayer works. But those of us that believe in prayer, have to work the prayers.”
 
Marktavion Perry-Bennett, 21, was the young man shot and killed last Thursday in the 1200 block of North Park Street. Kalamazoo Public Safety Officers reported that they found Perry-Bennett suffering from gunshot wounds shortly before 11 p.m. on April 24. He was transported to a local hospital but was later pronounced deceased. Lamone Demetrius Hickman Jr., 19, was located in Muskegon the following day and arrested in connection with the shooting. He has been arraigned on charges of murder, felony use of a firearm, and carrying a concealed weapon.
 
Courtesy: HOPE thru NavigationGun violence victim Montine “Mikey” Wiley is at right as members of ISAAC Group Violence Task Force finishes a visit to the Kalamazoo County Courthouse.Twelve days before that, and less than a mile away, 27-year-old Montine “Mikey” Wiley Jr. was shot and killed while working as a security guard outside a large social gathering at the Green Door Distillery, 429 E. North St. He was known as someone who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it, said friend Gwendolyn Hooker.
 
“He always wanted to help people,” says Hooker, who is chief executive officer of HOPE Thru Navigation, a nonprofit that helps individuals with substance use disorders and/or criminal backgrounds to readjust their lives. “If he saw someone broken down on the side of the road, he’s the person that would pull over and help them. He’s the person who would mow your lawn if you were a senior. He was just a very giving, kind-hearted person.”
 
Courtesy: HOPE thru NavigationMontine “Mikey” Wiley jr., left, helps a youngster learn to cook.Hooker knew Wiley through his efforts to help local gun-violence prevention organizations. He shared stories of his younger, wilder days with today’s younger gun-wielding generation. But his good work did not spare him from the reckless actions of another young gunman.
 
In connection with his shooting, Kaiden Tanner Cole, 18, was arrested and has been charged with murder, felony use of a firearm, and carrying a concealed weapon. Police allege he was involved in a scuffle with Wiley on the night of April 12. Damonte Christopher Jenkins-Gooden, 22, was also arrested in connection with the incident. He faces a felony firearms charge as well as tampering with evidence.
 
Fran DwightPeople prepare to make the Dominion Walk against gun violence on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 outside Zion Baptist Church. in Kalamazoo.“I’m hearing about these shootings, and on Sunday, I’m up talking to the congregation, and it just hit me,” Moore said. “The church has to have a response. The community has to have a response. We cannot be silent when Satan is loud.”
 
On Wednesday, about 250 people walked from Mt. Zion to the location of the Park Street shooting to call attention to the need for change. Called the Dominion Walk, the event took its name from the Biblical Book of Genesis in which God said man has dominion over the Earth. The walk was a symbolic way for people to take dominion over their community, Moore said.
 
Fran DwightThe desire to see an end to senseless shootings inspired people to participate in the anti-gun violence Dominion Walk on Wednesday, April 30, 2025.Among those walking were Rev. Lenzy Bell, pastor of First United Baptist Church; Rev. Chevez Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church; Alexander Lipsey, retired Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge and former state representative; James Ritsema, manager of the City of Kalamazoo; and David Anderson, mayor of Kalamazoo.
 
Anderson said he hopes the walk will generate more community awareness about gun violence and support for nonviolence.
 
Fran DwightKalamazoo Mayor David Anderson, center left, and City Manager James Ritsema, talk in the pews of Mount Zion Baptist Church before Wednesday’s anti-gun violence walk in Kalamazoo.“This is a way to demonstrate that a lot of people feel the same way together,” the mayor says of ending senseless gun violence. “That’s powerful.”
 
Through Kalamazoo’s Group Violence Intervention program, Rev. Lenzy Bell says he has learned that a small number of people are typically responsible for more than 90 percent of the crimes that occur in a community.
 
Fran DwightAbout 250 people are estimated to have participated in the April 30, 2025 anti-gun violence walk in Kalamazoo‘s North Side Neighborhood.“There are more (people) with us than against us,” says Bell, “although it always seems like there’s more bad people out there.”
 
He suggests that people remain strong in their efforts to help end the violence and work to overshadow the small group of wrongdoers with righteousness.
 
Mt. Zion Church member Tony Dennis participated in Wednesday’s event “to help curb the violence in our community and give people hope so they don’t have to resort to violence.” The director of Graduate Student Recruitment and Retention at Western Michigan University also says something needs to be done “to help change lives and make a difference however we can.”
 
Fran DwightA woman holds an anti-gun violence sign at the start of the Wednesday, April 30, 2025 Dominion Walk in Kalamazoo.Kalamazoo City Commissioner Chris Praedel says he participated to support the community. He says, “One life is too much, when it comes to gun violence.”
 
Toiya Ransom, a Mt. Zion Church member whose father was killed by gun violence in 1998, says, “The reason that we’re marching is because the youth are dying out here in the streets for no reason. I want to support the church and the surrounding community.”
 
Fran DwightTwo children smile and make faces as they participate in the Wednesday, April 30, 2025 Dominion Walk against gun violence.She says she hopes the efforts of the Northside Ministerial Alliance “will help influence people to make other choices and save somebody.”
 
Fran DwightThe desire to see an end to senseless shootings inspired people to participate in the anti-gun violence Dominion Walk on Wednesday, April 30, 2025.Rev. Kevin Wright, of First United Baptist Church, says, “I hope that people will see the togetherness of the church and the community and that the prayers that have been sent up will touch those who have danger in their hearts.”
 
He says he hopes they will think twice about violence and taking another life.
 
“There’s more of us in the community than there are shooters,” Moore says. “And so if we make our voices loud and do what we’re supposed to, I think we can make it better.”
 
Where help is needed
 
Although funeral services for Wiley were held on April 26, his family is struggling to cover that and the related costs, Hooker said. They are looking for any help people are willing to provide. Wiley and his fiancée were parents of a three-year-old with a second child on the way.
 
Fran DwightA hearse from Whiitney Memorial Funeral Home guided the walkers through the neighborhood.Donations from churches, businesses, or individuals may be made via PayPal to or by check if made out to HOPEtN with MIKEY in the Subject line. Those willing to help directly with cemetery or funeral cost may contact Gwendolyn Hooker at 269-216-8278.