Mother who lost son in shooting hopes violence interruption program helps other families

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“Because around this time, he’d be like, Mom, can I get this? Can I get this? Can I do this? So I’m like, damn, I’m not gonna get that this year,” Stark said.

This year will be her first Christmas without her oldest son, Hillary Farr.

“Every day is different, it’s hard, but we making it. We’re making it, it’s definitely different without him,” Stark said.

Someone shot and killed Farr in front of the family’s home in September.

No one has been charged for Farr’s death yet.

Farr’s family said he loved and was good in school.

He was a senior at Dunbar High School, where he played basketball.

His family said Farr also loved church.

He’d organized a group prayer circle in the neighborhood to pray about the violence there the week before his death.

News Center 7 talked to his family just days after the city of Dayton announced the final piece of its Violence Interruption Program:

Cure Violence Global will train Felons with a Future, a community group, on ways to prevent conflicts from turning violent.

“We’ve been doing the work, a lot of us have been doing the work anyway, and that’s, I believe, is why we’re a good fit for this grant,” Greg West with Felons with a Future said.

Stark said she hopes it works.

“There’s just too many kids getting killed like my son. And I’m just devastated,” she said. “I mean, I’m glad they’re putting it together. It should have been put together a long time ago.”

She hopes it helps other families.

“Hopefully it works out for the next person, so they won’t have to go through this because it’s too many senseless killings,” West said.

West said he hopes his team can start training for Dayton’s Violence Interruption Program as soon as next month.

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