The City of Grand Prairie held a prayer vigil on Saturday for victims of the Timberview High School shooting. While the Wednesday shooting is still under investigation, members of the community wanted to show their support for the community after the tragic incident that left four injured.
As reported by the Dallas Express, the school shooting took place in the morning hours of Wednesday at Timberview when two students allegedly got into a fight. One of the students, Timothy Simpkins, was then reported to have pulled a gun. Simpkins fired, injuring two students and two teachers.
“These are young people we are talking about,” Angela Lucky, the Grand Prairie NAACP branch president, said when speaking to the community.
Simpkins allegedly pulled a gun from his bag after getting into a fight with 15-year-old Zacchaeus Selby. It is unclear why the fight happened. Simpkins’ family has since said that the young man was being bullied.
With the shooting still under investigation, local faith leaders within the community want the victims, students, and their families to know that they care and that all are in their thoughts and prayers as the Timberview High School community tries to move on.
“We want the parents and the students to know that number one, we have them in prayer… the kids that were wounded,” Luckey said. “Also, NAACP Grand Prairie is really looking at this with serious concerns.”
Leaders also discussed resources available for those within the community who are struggling with the shooting, bullying, violence, and more. An emphasis on perspective and unity was a significant focus for leaders.
“The main message behind my prayer is that we all are human. In the end, we all have children and in the end, we have to remember those who were involved in the incident were children,” Pastor Lazerick Jackson of the Enforcement Worship Center Church shared.
Jackson continued, “It’s our job as community leaders to just pray for everybody no matter what the situation is because, in the end, there’s two sides to every story. Somewhere in the middle is the truth.” Jackson is the uncle of two Timberview High students.
