WILSON FUNERAL CALLS FOR A COMING TOGETHER

LIMA -- As hundreds gathered Friday afternoon to say goodbye to Tarika
Wilson, prayers were abundant for her family and six children, and the
message was to not let her death be in vain.

Many of those leaving the service, held a week after the 26-year-old
mother was shot by police, were remembering the words they heard inside.

"This is an opportunity for Tarika's life to unite a whole community,"
the Rev. Daniel Hughes, who read Scripture during the service, said
afterwards.

"It is extremely sad that her life was taken, but we have an
opportunity right now as a community to make sure that this kind of
thing doesn't happen again and that we become a better community," he
said.

Flanked by pink roses, Wilson's casket sat in the center of the
circular sanctuary at Grace Church Worldwide Ministries. Mourners made
their way up to Wilson, many holding on to each other for support. One
man leaned down to kiss her cheek.

Everyone entering received a pink lapel pin, lined in black. The pink
represented Wilson, and the black represented mourning. Wilson was
killed during a drug raid Jan. 4 at her Lima home.

Two hours after the family entered the sanctuary, those gathered
followed to Memorial Park Cemetery, where Wilson was buried.

The Rev. Ronald Fails called for the community to use the tragedy as
an opportunity to work to make the community whole again.

"This is not just an issue of black and white, it is an issue, really,
of human life," he said during the eulogy. "People are people, and we
will not allow the enemy to divide us on the basis of color."

Fails said after the service that the shooting brought other issues to
the surface that people have been feeling.

"It has created an environment that I think will force us as a
community to do the hard work to make our community better," he said.
"We have to now sit down as a community and address issues that are
very prevalent in our community so that together we can move forward
in a united kind of way."

Along with family and friends, Friday's service brought out many from
the community, including black church leaders, city officials and Lima
schools officials.

Among those attending were Lima Mayor David Berger, City Council
President John Nixon, Councilmen Derry Glenn and Tommy Pitts, Allen
County Sheriff Dan Beck and Lima schools Superintendent Karel Oxley.

Two of Wilson's children attend Liberty Elementary School. Wilson,
herself, was planning to continue her education, Fails said.

The Rev. Robert Curtis prayed for the family, asking for God's
help.

"We ask for intervention. We ask for comfort and peace," he prayed.
"Strengthen this family."

The service was not without acknowledgement of the questions that
remain about the shooting. A comment that many still have questions
was met by "Amen" from several in the church.

"We ask that you bring a healing in their lives," Curtis prayed. "Not
only to this family but to the life of this community."

Pitts assured the family and those gathered that he would not let the
situation go by the wayside until things have been resolved.

"We have to make sure that now that we have come together, we stay
together and deal with all of the issues," he said after the service.

One mourner, who asked not to be identified, was struck by the way the
community united to pay their respects and honor Wilson.

"I'm just hoping that we all learn from this incident," he said. "And
we move forward to a better community."