Crime & Safety

Candlelight Vigil Against Violence Planned Today

Organizers plan to gather near the site where Yolanda Morales was killed in a chaotic gun battle in South Bethlehem early Sunday.

 

A number of South Bethlehem groups have come together to organize a prayer and candlelight vigil against violence, which will be held at 5 tonight at the corner of E. Third and Taylor streets.

That street corner was the site of a frenzied gun battle that killed 23-year-old Yolanda Morales and left five others hospitalized early Sunday.

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The vigil is being supported by the Mayor’s South Side Task Force, the Lehigh University South Side Initiative, El Shaddai Ministries and the Puerto Rican Beneficial Society, which is where the bloody confrontation began.

“Our community has been shaken by a tragic incident involving gun violence in South Bethlehem last Sunday,” reads an email invitation to the event. “It is important for our community to come together now to begin the process of healing.”

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The firefight began as an “incidental” meeting between two groups of people who did not know each other prior to a night out at the club on Saturday, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said during a news conference on Monday.

Morales’ death has been ruled a homicide, but no charges had been filed as of Thursday afternoon. Law enforcement officials believe that the people who fired the weapons during the incident have been hospitalized in conditions ranging from serious to critical.

Services for Yolanda Morales are planned at the Boyko Funeral Home in Allentown on Saturday.


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