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Hundreds of family and friends celebrated a man who was shot outside a liquor store in Tallahassee on Sunday.
The Tallahassee Police Department said 40-year-old Demario Murray was among eight other bystanders struck by bullets from a McDonald’s across the street and into the parking lot of a half-time liquor store last weekend. Only Murray lost his life.
Murray’s longtime friend Alonzo Lee says his friend was well-known and loved in the community, which is why so many people came out to remember him. “Everybody here had some kind of connection to him,” Lee said, adding that the celebration of life was akin to a “big class reunion.”
Murray attended Rickards High School where he played football in the 1990s. “A lot of people from Rickards get together,” Murray said. “The DJ went to school with us, the chef went to school with us.”
So far this year, city police have reported 95 shootings — 17 resulting in deaths, according to data compiled by the Tallahassee Democrat.
Police say three rival gangs from Gadsden County were responsible for the shooting that took Murray’s life. Murray and the seven other people who were shot were not involved.
City commissioners plan to spend $5 million over the next few years to reduce gun violence.
Murray had two daughters and held two jobs, including one at Florida State University. Lee, 42, has been friends with Murray for 30 years. Lee says she remembers Murray as down-to-earth.
“He was always working,” Lee said, “and not working, he was with his kids.”
He and Murray spoke regularly, Lee said. Their children played together, and now Lee plans to help Murray’s mother and daughters get over their loss.
Valerie Crowder
/
WFSU News
Now, the family is raising money for Murray’s daughters by selling T-shirts honoring Armstrong for $25. So far, they’ve raised nearly $4,000 through the Cash app. The family is accepting donations through the account $longliveRosteen.
Renee Armstrong, 40, is Murray’s cousin. They grew up together and she looked up to him.
“He was the leader,” she said. “He taught us love.”
Armstrong says he was shocked when he learned of the shooting. “Wrong place, wrong time,” she said. Why him, of all people?”
Murray’s death received widespread local news – shedding light on the problem of gun violence i
n Tallahassee. Armstrong says local leaders need to do more.
“We need action. We really need to do something other than say, ‘Oh, this was a man of the community, a loving man, a loving father,'” Armstrong said. “We need more than that because it happens so often.”
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