THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300249
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 73 lines
Her steps slow and deliberate, 54-year-old Lunetta Joyner walked down the aisle and sat in a pew near the front of St. Mark R.U.Z.A. Church in Ghent Tuesday afternoon.
Clutching an overstuffed light-brown bear with a pink bow, the matriarch of the Joyner family led a solemn procession past more than 150 people gathered to say farewell to her 7-year-old granddaughter.
The teddy bear was Blanca H. Garcia's favorite stuffed animal.
Blanca, a student at St. Helena Elementary School, was killed July 22 when she was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight that erupted during an argument among three men.
On Tuesday afternoon, the church was filled with mourners - adults who had lost a family member, children who had lost a classmate and a friend.
Joyner, who has been a public conduit for her family's grief, sobbed loudly: ``My baby's gone, my baby's gone - Lord Jesus.''
Some mourners fanned themselves with pink and white programs emblazoned with Blanca's picture and the words, ``A Little Angel Goes Home.''
Adrian Herbert, Blanca's teacher at St. Helena Elementary, asked mourners to hold hands during her tribute.
``This is the spirit in which Blanca enjoyed life,'' she said, describing Blanca as a beautiful child, known for her toothy grin and big bear hugs.
``I just look at her as one of God's little angels,'' she said. ``She had a determination. If you said she couldn't do, she would do it.
``I just loved Blanca for that,'' she said tearfully.
Suzy Olesko, a reading teacher at St. Helena Elementary, read from a poem titled ``God's Vivacious Little Angel,'' written in memory of one of her favorite students.
``I am the teacher to teach you to read and write, but you are the angel to teach me the meaning of life,'' she recited.
``She was my little daughter at school,'' Olesko said.
The Rev. Alvin B. Thomas, pastor at the church, encouraged mourners to let Blanca's violent death serve as a catalyst for community action.
``We take a stand in the church against violence,'' Thomas proclaimed. ``We know violence is a weapon of Satan.
``Society has failed us. Violence and crime are running rampant, and there are no constraints.
``We ought to get out of our homes and get off of our soft couches and go into our neighborhoods and take back what Satan has taken away from us. We as a people, we need to get into our family values. We need to go back to these values that God has entrusted us with.''
Blanca's death was the second in four months in which a young resident of Norfolk's Berkley section was killed by errant gunfire.
According to information released by Portsmouth police after the shooting, Blanca hid in a bathroom when the dispute began in a Park View apartment. When she walked out of the bathroom, one of the men fired toward the front door, hitting her in the neck area. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Friday, police charged the man entrusted to care for Blanca that day - Lamario A. Cooper, 25 - with first-degree murder and several related charges. Cooper, who in an interview Friday at the Portsmouth City Jail denied that he fired the fatal shot, is being held without bond.
Blanca, of the 400 block of Pendleton St., lived about three blocks from the Hough Avenue home of 3-year-old Taylor Ricks. Taylor was killed by a stray bullet April 1 when she lifted the blinds in a second-floor bedroom window and a bullet struck her in the head. Four people were charged in that shooting. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by HUY NGUYEN photos\The Virginian-Pilot
Blanca Garcia's teddy bear is handed to her sisters, Lunetta D.
Joyner, 9, left, and Yesnia Garcia, 6, waiting in the car after her
funeral Monday.
Suzette Garcia, right, holds Agustin Garcia during their daughter's
funeral. A nurse, and Blanca's grandmother Lunetta Joyner, sit to
Augustin's right.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING JUVENILE by CNB