Pastor at Funeral Pleads for Peace

As about 1,000 mourners crowded into a Watts church Saturday for the funeral of a slain 15-year-old boy, the presiding minister implored the scores of youths in attendance to declare an Easter weekend truce to recent violence that has gripped two housing projects.

“All of you have got to stop fighting your own neighbors,” said Carl Washington, a minister and former state assemblyman, from the pulpit of New Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. “The police can’t do it. But you have the power to do it. We must start a crusade for peace this Easter weekend.”

The funeral of Trent Moody Jr., shot in the chest March 28 as he stood with friends along East 113th Street while waiting to get his hair braided, brought out an overflow crowd that spilled onto the sidewalk and around the corner. Police said Moody had been caught in gang crossfire. No arrests have been made.

Some said the large turnout and the raw emotion at the funeral was an expression of the collective anguish many in the area feel after at least six shootings in two weeks have racked the area around the Jordan Downs and Imperial Courts housing projects. Jordan Downs residents were so fearful of more shootings after Moody’s death that they dragged garbage cans into the street to try to block another drive-by.

Police officers in unmarked cars monitored Saturday’s funeral. Sgt. Juan Santos of the LAPD’s Southeast Division said officers were bracing for retaliatory shootings.

Inside the church on El Segundo Boulevard near Avalon Boulevard, Moody’s large extended family, which includes eight younger siblings and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, wept bitterly. Many of the youths wore oversized white T-shirts imprinted with Moody’s image, smiling in a light blue football jersey, and “Rest in Peace Lil’ Trent” written in script. His body lay in an open casket for part of the service, dressed casually in a white and light blue T-shirt with a cell phone in one hand and his favorite basketball tucked by his side.

“I want the community to know that this death has brought tremendous hurt and grief to our family,” said Trent Moody Sr., 32, the boy’s father. “We want the shooting to stop now. Put the guns down. I want to raise my children in a place where we don’t have to run and hide.”

About 25 members of the L.A. Inner City Mass Choir, a youth chorus in South Los Angeles, sang as a reflection of the grief they still feel over the shooting death in 2000 of one of their own, Amber Laskey.

“A lot of people in this community need encouragement right now. There has been so much violence, so many shootings,” said Jeffrey Coprich, the choir director. “We can identify with the pain these people are feeling.”

Washington and several other pastors incorporated into their sermons pointed words of admonishment to the youth in attendance.

“If you want to get a job, that is a good thing. But you need to get an education first,” Washington said. “You have to put down your 40-ounce and your 60-ounce and your 80-ounce, because you can’t get a job if you are drinking beer all day long.”

Referring to the overflow crowd, Washington told the congregation, “Clearly, something was right about his life. You all did a good job raising this boy.”

Moody was a sophomore at Narbonne High School and lived with his father and grandmother in Watts. He enjoyed playing basketball and was determined to graduate from high school, his father said.

In a tribute to her grandson and his passion for basketball, Margaret Mendenhall wrote in the funeral program:

“The game is over baby, and you won, you won your game ... We will never forget you.... “