August 23, 2024 • 29 mins
In 1988, 5-year-old Marcus Yates was caught in crossfire inside a corner store in Southwest Philadelphia. While the deaths of children to gun violence have become tragically commonplace, Marcus's death at that time galvanized the city and inspired me and many others to work to end gun violence. Over three decades later, the family took a courageous step toward healing by meeting with the men convicted in the shooting. In a surprising turn, the family concluded that while Ike Johnson admitted to being involved, citing self-defense, Michael Gainer was wrongfully convicted. The Yates family has committed to proving his innocence. I spoke to Marcus's mom, Shelly Yates Whittington, and her two sons, Tony and Malcolm Yates, about their journey of healing and reconciliation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to what's going on. I'm Lorraine Ballard Morrow. Right now,
in the next few minutes, we're going to have a
very important conversation. It's an important conversation not only to
those who are listening, but certainly for me as well,
because over thirty years ago, there is a young boy
named Marcus Yates who was killed in the crossfire of
(00:20):
a shooting that was in southwest Philadelphia. As a result
of that, I got to know the family very very well.
Marcus Yates was five years old. His brothers were there
when this incident happened. And you go three sixty full
circle and we're all here in the studio together. I'm
here with Shelley Yates Whittington, who is Marcus's mom, Tony Yates,
(00:43):
who is Marcus's brother, and his other brother, Malcolm Yates.
And I just want to say that I've known this
family for over thirty years, and in the course of
that knowledge that knowing this family, I have just seen
some remarkable people that have done so much good in
the community and are doing so well on their own
despite the tremendous trauma of that incident, which galvanized a
(01:07):
city of Philadelphia Sadly, as we look at twenty twenty four,
when we're doing this interview, the death of a child
by gun violence, people they barely pay attention because it's
so common. But when Marcus Yates was killed over thirty
years ago, the city took notice and it was devastating
for the city of Philadelphia. Well, here we are in
(01:29):
twenty twenty four, and there's a new story to tell,
and that is a story of healing and forgiveness. So
I just want to welcome to the studio Shelley Yates Whittington,
who is a pastor and teacher and an activist. Tony Yates,
who was actually one of my interns back in the
day and also worked for Power ninety nine back in
(01:49):
the day and now is a very successful DJ known
as DJ's sole controller. And Malcolm Yates, who again just
extraordinarily was injured during that gunfight and was told that
he may not be able to walk, And here he is.
Not only did he play football in college, he is
now the director of government relations for PHMC Public Health
(02:11):
Management Corporation and who knows he might be the next
mayor of the city affilideph Yeah, he is on his
way for sure, thank you. So I'm going to start
with you, Shelley, and first I want to remind folks
what the circumstances were, what brings us here today. Tell
us about Marcus Yates and what happened.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Okay, thirty five years ago, my little baby boy, Marcus
Yates was visiting his grandmother in the ad on sixty
f in Springfield, along with his two brothers. During that time,
while me and his father was working at the Navy Yard.
We came home and our life changed forever. We found
that Marcus was shot in the head. Malcolm was shot twice,
(02:51):
and Tony was there to pick up the pieces to
try to save his brother's life by putting his fingers
in the hole of his brother's head. But unfortunately, Marcus
in the hospital in my arms. And that's been thirty
six years ago that I've been on this journey of forgiveness.
I've been holding on to a lot of anger and
hurt and it was time to let it go. Yeah,
(03:12):
So I'm here now to tell you about my journey.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Well, we're going to get back to you in a second.
Tony eighth, you were eleven and you were there. I
can't even begin to imagine how traumatic that had to
have been for you. And yet here you are. You're married,
you're a father, you're a husband, you have a successful business,
and you have managed to succeed in life despite the
(03:38):
tremendous trauma that you experienced.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, what is your memory of Marcus?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Oh man, my brother was It was just funny man.
He was the life of all of us. He was
the jokester, the bully of us three if you will,
you though, because he whatever Mark is when it, Marcus
got it and he was just a joke that I
just remember a lot of laughter when it comes to him.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
That's as far as it goes.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, well, that's a wonderful memory to hold on to. Malcolm.
You were seven at the time that this occurred, and
you were injured pretty severely.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I was shot once in my left hip and in
my right foot.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Right, and they thought you may not be able to
walk again.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Right, Yeah, that was you know, the assumption, because it
shattered my pelvis and an exited about a few inches
from my spine and then also on my foot. So
it was a recovery process that took you know, two
three about two months to get recovered. I was in
the hospital from that day until like September, So from
July to September, I was in the hospital and yet.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You were able to recover and you went on to
play sports.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. So God is great man. It didn't slow it down.
I mean I still feel some effects of it today,
but I was able to play some football. I did
some collegiate football, did some arena football, and now here
I am walking and talking and just active and still
play sports. Yeah. I have been a full recovery.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
What is your memory of Marcus? You were only seven
at the time.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
But that's the challenging part, right, being so close in age,
the memories as time goes on, you kind of they
kind of fade a little bit, and that there is
the most challenging piece of it, because the memory that
I would love to have may have been lost because
of the gap of time and being so close in age.
(05:29):
So I always just remember he and I just you know,
being so close, always teaming up to try to beat
up Tony. You know, it was always hard to beat
up big Bro, and you know, always just tagging along
with big brother to do whatever he was doing, you know,
because he was four years older. So it was always
looking up the tone, trying to russell you know, WWE
and all that good stuff. So we were always swearing
(05:51):
we were the you know, the tag team champions of
the world going against Hawgogan over there.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So it was always good yep and MARKI was the
ring leader.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, my memory of Marcus was simply the picture of him,
that iconic picture with his little smiling face, five year
old Marcus Yates. Who would be thirty five, right or no,
would he be a little bit forty forty?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
He would be forty forty one.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What do you want? Yeah, yeah, Well, Shelley, anyone who's
experienced the kind of devastating loss that you and your
family have experienced have to go through, you know, the
process of healing, overcoming the trauma. And of course nothing
will ever take away the pain completely because he's always
(06:36):
going to be in your hearts, and that's a loss
that will never be completely healed. However, as we look
at thirty five years later, you made a decision which
is quite monumental, and that is to speak to the
two men who were convicted in Marcus's death, And I
want you to tell us what was on your mind
when you decided that you wanted to meet them, you
(06:58):
wanted to speak to them. What was your goal?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I needed to find out if I actually forgive them. See,
I'm like I said, I'm a evangelist and I'm on
the road to forgiveness because Christ died for me, and
he forgave me for my sins, So how dare I
not forget someone else? But even though during that journey,
I couldn't find it in my heart to forgive them
because the pain was so great. I lost so much
(07:24):
and the memories don't go away now, and I lost everything,
even my dad. It was his you know, he was
Marcus's best friend. He died like a couple of years later.
I'm a broken heart. And then his father died because
he couldn't, you know, take it because Marcus was born
on his birthday, So to know that he did two
towards the Vietnam to come home and so watch his
(07:45):
son die right in my arms, it was just unbearable.
And I just needed to find some kind of healing.
And I know on his journey and forgiveness it was
essential for my spiritual and my physical health because I
can not no longer hold on to that anger. That
I've been going through. And people think that I go
talk and big places, but inside I was dying every
(08:08):
time because nobody understands to have a loss of a
child that you've been there, and because Marcus was my
baby boy and only had three and then come to
find out I have to give birth to a little
girl nine months later.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I know that was a miracle, right, it was a miracle.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But it was sold. I can't even give you the
words because I think I didn't deserve her. And all
that time, I never felt like I deserve to having
another child because I couldn't take care of the three
I had, so too fast forward. I just asked the
Lord to help me, and so I couldn't sleep. I
stayed up. But it's just been four or five years ago,
and before Covid and the Lord kept talking to me,
(08:47):
forgive these two forgive, forgive, forgive. It's just been laying
better than my head every single night. So I said, Lord, okay,
I hear you, and I said, I'm going to go
on this journey of forgiveness. And so during his journey
has been very healing for me as it because forgiveness
is not for them, it's for me. I just kept
(09:09):
wanted to make sure that I did everything I can
to forgive them, but it wasn't good enough. So one
day the lawy said, called a prison. So I called
a prison and I said, I'm Marcus's mother and I'm
the victim's mother, and I want to make appointment for
me to come down to visit mister Michael Gainner and
(09:30):
mister Ike Johnson. And he said what I said, Yes,
I need to come and visit them. He said, miss,
we never heard nothing like this before. So he transferred
me to somebody else. And so bytt line, I got
to the victim Advocacy program and Ken and Penny from
the victim advocacy program said, they'll work with me to
set up arrangement for me to meet these two.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
The two men convicted of killing your son. Yes, well
you actually were able to do that. Yes, you met
with both of them individually.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I did, and what happened, Well, when I met with
mister Ike Johnson, first I asked my son or do
they mind being with me? And we wanted. I wanted
to go to the prison, but I know Tony said
no prison knocking Tanisha. They was open to do it,
but I didn't. I didn't really want to travel that far,
and traveling in that distance was not for me to do.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yeah, where are they were there? Incarcerated?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
They're incarcerated, I don't remember.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
That's kind of far.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It was cold town or something like that. So they're
upstate pace.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
That was quite so I couldn't do it on the
same day, so I asked him, can we do zoom?
And we did soon.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, so you brought Malcolm with you?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yes, Knacolm was there and Tanisha was there. Tony wasn't
there at first. He wasn't there at either time.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So Malcolm, what was that like?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
At first? It was very emotional because for me, that
was the first time that I actually got the opportunity
to lay eyes on them as an adult. The last
time that I actually was in the same room or
spoken to either one was in nineteen ninety when I
was nine years old in court, and I never got
the opportunity to conceptualize it or even comprehended as an adult.
(11:18):
And now and as an adult being able to see
and speak to both of them was just like a
full circle moment. He knew everything, you know, he says,
Malcolm is good to see.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You and and who is that speaking And this was like.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Johnson, this is the gentleman who actually was in the store,
who actually fired.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
The weapons, and in the midst that.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
He actually did this, and it was really like wow,
taken back, like you know me, he knew the story,
he knew I mean, of course he knew it, but
it was just you know, he followed us, He followed us,
you know, from what we were doing, and understood where
I was, you know, doing things politically and through the community.
And he knew Tunisia. He knew Tony, he called out
you know, Micah and Shannon like all of us, like
(12:00):
and Grant in his mind. And it was just so
like wow, and that really kind of threw me through
a loop. But also I've been on this information gathering
because I was only seven years old, so I only
know the accounts that was told between the lawyers, between
the court, between the media, and then with my own account.
(12:21):
But again, your account is only from what you're your perspective.
You don't know the background, you don't know the other
side of the story. You know. Finally, maybe in twenty eighteen, Tony,
myself and Micah and Shannon, we finally got together and
gave our accounts for the first time in thirty years.
So now hearing it from the other side of the gun,
(12:41):
hearing him and what he went through and his account
through the day, and he starts off and says that
you know, you and I was never supposed to meet.
I didn't come into that store for this. I was
just getting a pineapple soda on the hot July day.
And hearing that piece of it was just like, Okay,
I can release some of the anger or attention that
was in my heart because I thought they just was
(13:03):
coming in there just to.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Just shut up the store. Yeah, exactly, So, Tony, you
weren't able to be at the Zoom calls, but you're
certainly aware of everything that's going on, and I wonder
if you can tell us a little bit about your
own feeling. How do you relate to all of this
that's been unfolding.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
At first, when my mother brought it to my attention
and said that this is the path that she wants
to go down, at the first, I was just like,
I don't know. I don't think I really want to
be a part of it. I want to live my life,
you know. I don't want to keep bringing back and
open up the wounds again and again and again and again.
(13:42):
But it seems like every year the wounds keep open
again and again because every time we get to a milestone,
there's something that we have to do to remember that milestone,
there's a trigger.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I'm saying, every year, right, right, right.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So then I thought about it and I was like,
you know, she's right. In order to move on, you
have to forgive. And in order to heal, you have
to forgive. So who am I to judge? Who am
I not to forgive?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Nobody?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And then on top of that, God has already done
blessed me with my son, who is named Marcus.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yes, and he looks so much like him, it's really crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Rich Yet, if.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Anyone has never believed in reincarnation, you need to look
at my brother. I mean, look at my son, because
my son is the reincarnation of my brother. God has
given me my brother to raise because the things that
he do, the things that he say, the birthmark, the
(14:46):
stork bite from one hit one side to the other,
the wings that he has on his back as a birthmark,
I mean, these are telltale signs of reincarnation and when
he was given to me in my life, you know,
and I'm able to raise this my brother again. You know,
(15:09):
I'm now looking at this whole thing like we need
to do this. We need to set a precedence for
anyone who's been dealing with the hurt and the pain
that can't get through it, who has the hate in
their heart because of someone that's did them wrong, but
they don't know the story behind of the person. And
then when I was able to hear the story to
(15:31):
get the idea of what happened, what led to this,
I'm looking at it like it could have been me.
It could be me now, especially the account that Michael
Gaynor has given, that could be any one of us
right now just walking and being in the crowd. And
then because I'm guilty by association, now I'm doing life.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So let's talk about Michael Gaynor, Shelley. The other thing
that came out of this is your understanding that Michael
Gaynor was actually wrongfully convicted of the murder of your son. Yes,
so he spent these thirty five years behind the walls
of the prison where he's incarcerated as an innocent man. Yes,
(16:15):
And so tell us more about that okay.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So when I reached out to him and I finally
got a chance to meet both of them. But I
just met with Michael Gaynor on Friday. I didn't know
any of this had happened because they put us out
the courtroom during that time. And so now I found
out that he was framed, that he was set up.
The police detective that was supposed to have been really
close to my family, Paul Warrell. They have a whole
story about him framing a whole lot of young black
(16:39):
boys during the eighties, and they are sitting in jail
right now. So I said to him, Michael, I said,
I have to do whatever I can to get you free.
You should not be sitting there for thirty six years
for something you didn't do. Nobody should be in the
prison walls the thirty six years for something they didn't do.
I said, how loo was your mother? She said eighty seven.
(17:01):
I said, I want to be there today that you
get out and give your mother a hug, because I
can't hug markets. But your mother's alive, and I pray
that you will get a chance to see her. And
so after he told me everything, he said, we're connected
as family. You're my family, and he thinks about everything.
In nineteen eighty eight, he talks to me like he said,
(17:21):
you're my big sister.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I said, okay, so I'm just like.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Wow and everything. Even with a Johnson, he talks to
me like it was that same day. He put me
right back in the place, and he gave me all
the answers that I ever waited to hear. And I
never heard any of those things until Friday. And so
I told him, if God give me that, give me strength,
and I get the people to help come behind me,
(17:47):
we're going to get you out of there. But I
told him I love him. I told him I'm sorry
because I didn't know. And if I knew back then,
I would have made sure that he would we would
have found the right person.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
And when we were talking about this previously, that Ike,
the person who admittedly pulled the trigger. When he saw
Michael Gainor, he said, that's not the guy, Yeah, he said,
but it's not him. That's not him. And yet they
went ahead and convicted him anyway. And that's not an
unfamiliar story.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
No, it's not. So many men are sitting behind bars
and I was looking at the exonerate the series as
on a radio series exam and then I trying to
contact the dae Yes, and I left message just for them.
I haven't heard back from them, but I guess the
urgency maybe it's not as there it is for me.
I don't want him to spend another day there.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
We're creating that urgency now, you know, now that we
got the story in the account and then talking to
Michael Gainor and hearing what he has done on his side,
this is what we need to do next because is wrong,
you know, and for him to sit and stealing in
prison for thirty five years is just unacceptable. So we
want to continue to do what we can do on
(18:56):
the outside and then what he's doing on the inside,
and using our platform and using our resources to say, Okay,
this was our brother and we lost them. Yes, this
has happened to our family, but it also is a
duality to it, like, Okay, now we have someone who
was wrongfully convicted, so we have to get him the
justice that he deserves. So he needs to be released.
So my mom has helped reaching out to Larry Krasner.
(19:18):
I also send some emails to the District Attorney office.
Also send an email to the Lieutenant Governor's office to
see what we can do to hopefully get the sense
of urgency and the priority place higher on this because
we definitely have to do something right.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
And just to close the circle, there was another person
who actually you believe is the shooter who has passed away.
Is it right? Yes, he was never arrested, no, but
he's passed away. And now we have two people, one
who's been isolated from the general population, Ike, because the death,
the murder of a child is the worst thing you
(19:54):
can do in prison. Right, absolutely, but ironically and very tellingly, right,
Michael Gaynor is in the general population. He's not considered
by his fellow inmates as being that person who was
the perpetrator of this murder. And so that's a very
interesting development, Tony. What would you like to see in
the best possible world.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
In the best possible world, I would love to see
Michael Gaynor be as hoonerated. I would like to see
Mike Johnson to be released. And the reason why I
say that is because, again, there's two sides of every story,
and when you hear his story, all he was doing
was protecting himself.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
That's all he was doing.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
He was protecting himself, you know. And and again I
sit and I think about it. It could have been anybody,
any one of us, anybody hearing him cross the street
almost getting hit by a car. This is like and
words was exchanged. Then he's in the store and the
person comes back into the store behind him and say
(20:56):
what did you say? And then pull a weapon And
then now he's defending himself and we were just casualties.
And for me that was a weight lifted because this
wasn't something between you know, him being reckless. It was
him defending himself. So the person who was driving the
car was the reckless one, like and that person got
what he deserved, still being in the streets, street justice,
(21:19):
street justice prevailed on him, right, But of course what
he was doing was wrong. He was in the streets
and he had a weapon on him all that. But
still thirty five years with self defense. Yes, that's another
thing that we look at like wow. Yeah, And honestly,
after you get down the road, like I said, this
is thirty six years now. Yes, you know, how long
(21:40):
are you gonna hold his crutch? How long are you
going to continue to have hate in your heart? You know,
just let it go.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why some of
us are physically and mentally sick is because of unforgiveness.
After speaking to them, it was not only was a
life changing for me, but it was emotional liberating. I
am no longer bound up them changed on my mind.
I'd been holding on those change was wrapped around my
mind for a long time because I didn't get a
(22:09):
chance to grief, as you really know, the newspeople followed
me everywhere I went. I worried about them boys because
they had to hit out on them. I had to
travel three hours to see them. I couldn't do half
the couldn't media half the time because her dad wasn't
ready to deal with it. My whole life changed. And
I'd just been, you know, psychologically so bonded. I was
(22:33):
in bondage. I'm not in bondage anymore. Five years ago
when i wrote him that letter, he read that letter
back to me, I tell you, and after he said,
you try to commit suicide, and I did because I
couldn't take this that Who wrote you a letter?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
She wrote a letter to Michael Gainer, actually to both
of them, I guess and Michael gainor kept that letter,
all the original articles and read the letter verbatim right
back to her.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Wo.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Man, you're talking about touching, it's just can't Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Wow. So I think we have to touch on the
fact that the media can traumatize and re traumatize over
and over, you know, first of all, bringing up the
details over and over again, being intrusive, you know, probably
following you and wanting to talk to you and all that.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Remember, Malcolm and I was to post a child for
stop the violence and increase the peace. We've been paraded
around Senate President Harrisburg. We've been to post the child,
so they all for this. But also what that being
said is that yes, the media could re traumatize us,
(23:48):
but we've been through it. We've been through the woods,
we've been through the fire. We can speak to truth
to justice, right or it is truth to power, but also
be able to have solution based conversation. Absolutely, And that's.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Where we're at now. For those who are still stuck
in the trauma and angry, we understand we want to
be the mouthpiece and we want to continuously be the
representative to those who can't necessarily tell their story. But
also now on the road of healing, recovery and redumbant.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Be there for someone who needs to be reared to
a different direction, because you know, not everyone has the
Lorraine balladmor And I told you every time I talk
to you, every time I have this conversation, regardless, I'm
gonna give you the flowers that you are rightfully given
because you took me from one place to change my life.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Absolutely so, and talking that we need that how media
portrays and tells the story as you and I know
we're going to this sensible gun violence, how to report
gun violence, and the way that you are you've been
telling the story, the way you've been connected to us.
We saw you saw us go from literally from the.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Not only are you grown men, but you're a successful
grown man. I mean you're a powerful man. You know,
you've got family, You've got love, You've you know, it's
my heart is so full just to see the two
of you, and you of course Shelley, and and Tunisia,
your daughter who was born nine months to the day
after Marcus.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
She has passed away doing the same thing. She's she
has own business as well, taken off.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, well it's it's a beautiful thing. And It's all
about healing and forgiveness and justice, and that's what you
want to see.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Want justice.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
You want justice as that's all we want is justice.
We all, that's all we've been crusading for.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
We want both of the men, release both of them,
not just one.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
There's certainly lots of folks out there who are they've
lost loved ones gun violence, because that's Philly. You know,
there's a lot of people who've lost lost their children
and may not see the path to heal. Absolutely, what
would you say to that?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I know we went and spoke quite a few different places.
It's Cheney State, everywhere. We just was at an event
a wee could go. And when I tell them that
I'm on this journey, I get those looks. My son
can tell you, they give me this gas for like,
are you crazy? Why would you forgive those people? And
I say, I'm thirty five years in and you're just
a year, a month, couple months, And I understand how
(26:23):
you feel, but I got to live my journey and
I'm there for you. I give them hugs and comfort
and prayer and whatever they need from me, I'll give
it to them. But I can't go back thirty five
years ago. I just got to move forward and I
got to do what God called me to do. They
have to be freed. It's not right. Justice is justice.
I'm concerned about my boys, my daughters. Every chance I
(26:47):
don't hear from Is that because of markets, yes, but
also because they're black men in America?
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And I feel the pain of these mothers who lost
their children, boys and girls and whoever. But I have
to work on the end of the avenue now. I
gotta move forward, and like you said, the other part
to this, and I'm working on that part now. Freedom.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Thank you all so much for joining us here today.
Shelley Yates Whittington, who is the mother of Marcus Yates,
who was killed over thirty five years ago at the
age of five in an incident that has cascaded into
a journey of healing and forgiveness for the whole family.
Shelley Yates a pastor, a teacher, and on her path
(27:33):
to forgiveness and healing. Tony Yates successful dj A dad.
I think I saw some prom pictures of yours daughter. Gorgeous, Oh, gorgeous. Yeah,
And I just love you, know. I follow you on
Facebook and I just love seeing what a great dad
and a great husband you are. Just a beautiful thing.
Tony Yates and Malcolm, I feel like you know Congress presienned.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
President President to God's Ears.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Definitely the path is open for you. You're currently director
of government relations for Public Health Management Corporation. You were
seven years old when your brother was killed, Tony was eleven,
and you're all on this joint journey of forgiveness and
healing and justice. And I want to thank you so
much for taking the time with us today to share
(28:21):
your story and hopefully provide inspiration and solace to others
who might be in a similar situation. And also hopefully
there will be justice for the two men that were
convicted in the murder of five year old Market Siates,
someone who certainly made a huge impact on my life
thirty five plus years ago. We want to say thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Absolutely, we'll think thank you, Lorraine, because you didn't have
to be here that you was there for us from
day one, from day one, and I think you.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Partners like you and the media partners that provide their
platform help us continuously do the job, help the people
that's necessary because we can't reach the ears without partners.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well, thank you all for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Can listen to all of today's interviews by going to
our station website and typing in Keyword Community. You can
also listen on the iHeartRadio app Keywords Philadelphia Community Podcast.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm
Lorraine Ballard MOREL and I stand for service to our
community and media that empowers. What will you stand for?
(29:22):
You've been listening to what's going on, and thank you
Welcome to what's going on. I'm Lorraine Ballard Morrow. Right now,
in the next few minutes, we're going to have a
very important conversation. It's an important conversation not only to
those who are listening, but certainly for me as well,
because over thirty years ago, there is a young boy
named Marcus Yates who was killed in the crossfire of
(00:20):
a shooting that was in southwest Philadelphia. As a result
of that, I got to know the family very very well.
Marcus Yates was five years old. His brothers were there
when this incident happened. And you go three sixty full
circle and we're all here in the studio together. I'm
here with Shelley Yates Whittington, who is Marcus's mom, Tony Yates,
(00:43):
who is Marcus's brother, and his other brother, Malcolm Yates.
And I just want to say that I've known this
family for over thirty years, and in the course of
that knowledge that knowing this family, I have just seen
some remarkable people that have done so much good in
the community and are doing so well on their own
despite the tremendous trauma of that incident, which galvanized a
(01:07):
city of Philadelphia Sadly, as we look at twenty twenty four,
when we're doing this interview, the death of a child
by gun violence, people they barely pay attention because it's
so common. But when Marcus Yates was killed over thirty
years ago, the city took notice and it was devastating
for the city of Philadelphia. Well, here we are in
(01:29):
twenty twenty four, and there's a new story to tell,
and that is a story of healing and forgiveness. So
I just want to welcome to the studio Shelley Yates Whittington,
who is a pastor and teacher and an activist. Tony Yates,
who was actually one of my interns back in the
day and also worked for Power ninety nine back in
(01:49):
the day and now is a very successful DJ known
as DJ's sole controller. And Malcolm Yates, who again just
extraordinarily was injured during that gunfight and was told that
he may not be able to walk, And here he is.
Not only did he play football in college, he is
now the director of government relations for PHMC Public Health
(02:11):
Management Corporation and who knows he might be the next
mayor of the city affilideph Yeah, he is on his
way for sure, thank you. So I'm going to start
with you, Shelley, and first I want to remind folks
what the circumstances were, what brings us here today. Tell
us about Marcus Yates and what happened.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Okay, thirty five years ago, my little baby boy, Marcus
Yates was visiting his grandmother in the ad on sixty
f in Springfield, along with his two brothers. During that time,
while me and his father was working at the Navy Yard.
We came home and our life changed forever. We found
that Marcus was shot in the head. Malcolm was shot twice,
(02:51):
and Tony was there to pick up the pieces to
try to save his brother's life by putting his fingers
in the hole of his brother's head. But unfortunately, Marcus
in the hospital in my arms. And that's been thirty
six years ago that I've been on this journey of forgiveness.
I've been holding on to a lot of anger and
hurt and it was time to let it go. Yeah,
(03:12):
So I'm here now to tell you about my journey.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Well, we're going to get back to you in a second.
Tony eighth, you were eleven and you were there. I
can't even begin to imagine how traumatic that had to
have been for you. And yet here you are. You're married,
you're a father, you're a husband, you have a successful business,
and you have managed to succeed in life despite the
(03:38):
tremendous trauma that you experienced.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, what is your memory of Marcus?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Oh man, my brother was It was just funny man.
He was the life of all of us. He was
the jokester, the bully of us three if you will,
you though, because he whatever Mark is when it, Marcus
got it and he was just a joke that I
just remember a lot of laughter when it comes to him.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
That's as far as it goes.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, well, that's a wonderful memory to hold on to. Malcolm.
You were seven at the time that this occurred, and
you were injured pretty severely.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I was shot once in my left hip and in
my right foot.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Right, and they thought you may not be able to
walk again.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Right, Yeah, that was you know, the assumption, because it
shattered my pelvis and an exited about a few inches
from my spine and then also on my foot. So
it was a recovery process that took you know, two
three about two months to get recovered. I was in
the hospital from that day until like September, So from
July to September, I was in the hospital and yet.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You were able to recover and you went on to
play sports.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. So God is great man. It didn't slow it down.
I mean I still feel some effects of it today,
but I was able to play some football. I did
some collegiate football, did some arena football, and now here
I am walking and talking and just active and still
play sports. Yeah. I have been a full recovery.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
What is your memory of Marcus? You were only seven
at the time.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
But that's the challenging part, right, being so close in age,
the memories as time goes on, you kind of they
kind of fade a little bit, and that there is
the most challenging piece of it, because the memory that
I would love to have may have been lost because
of the gap of time and being so close in age.
(05:29):
So I always just remember he and I just you know,
being so close, always teaming up to try to beat
up Tony. You know, it was always hard to beat
up big Bro, and you know, always just tagging along
with big brother to do whatever he was doing, you know,
because he was four years older. So it was always
looking up the tone, trying to russell you know, WWE
and all that good stuff. So we were always swearing
(05:51):
we were the you know, the tag team champions of
the world going against Hawgogan over there.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
So it was always good yep and MARKI was the
ring leader.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, my memory of Marcus was simply the picture of him,
that iconic picture with his little smiling face, five year
old Marcus Yates. Who would be thirty five, right or no,
would he be a little bit forty forty?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
He would be forty forty one.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
What do you want? Yeah, yeah, Well, Shelley, anyone who's
experienced the kind of devastating loss that you and your
family have experienced have to go through, you know, the
process of healing, overcoming the trauma. And of course nothing
will ever take away the pain completely because he's always
(06:36):
going to be in your hearts, and that's a loss
that will never be completely healed. However, as we look
at thirty five years later, you made a decision which
is quite monumental, and that is to speak to the
two men who were convicted in Marcus's death, And I
want you to tell us what was on your mind
when you decided that you wanted to meet them, you
(06:58):
wanted to speak to them. What was your goal?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I needed to find out if I actually forgive them. See,
I'm like I said, I'm a evangelist and I'm on
the road to forgiveness because Christ died for me, and
he forgave me for my sins, So how dare I
not forget someone else? But even though during that journey,
I couldn't find it in my heart to forgive them
because the pain was so great. I lost so much
(07:24):
and the memories don't go away now, and I lost everything,
even my dad. It was his you know, he was
Marcus's best friend. He died like a couple of years later.
I'm a broken heart. And then his father died because
he couldn't, you know, take it because Marcus was born
on his birthday, So to know that he did two
towards the Vietnam to come home and so watch his
(07:45):
son die right in my arms, it was just unbearable.
And I just needed to find some kind of healing.
And I know on his journey and forgiveness it was
essential for my spiritual and my physical health because I
can not no longer hold on to that anger. That
I've been going through. And people think that I go
talk and big places, but inside I was dying every
(08:08):
time because nobody understands to have a loss of a
child that you've been there, and because Marcus was my
baby boy and only had three and then come to
find out I have to give birth to a little
girl nine months later.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I know that was a miracle, right, it was a miracle.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
But it was sold. I can't even give you the
words because I think I didn't deserve her. And all
that time, I never felt like I deserve to having
another child because I couldn't take care of the three
I had, so too fast forward. I just asked the
Lord to help me, and so I couldn't sleep. I
stayed up. But it's just been four or five years ago,
and before Covid and the Lord kept talking to me,
(08:47):
forgive these two forgive, forgive, forgive. It's just been laying
better than my head every single night. So I said, Lord, okay,
I hear you, and I said, I'm going to go
on this journey of forgiveness. And so during his journey
has been very healing for me as it because forgiveness
is not for them, it's for me. I just kept
(09:09):
wanted to make sure that I did everything I can
to forgive them, but it wasn't good enough. So one
day the lawy said, called a prison. So I called
a prison and I said, I'm Marcus's mother and I'm
the victim's mother, and I want to make appointment for
me to come down to visit mister Michael Gainner and
(09:30):
mister Ike Johnson. And he said what I said, Yes,
I need to come and visit them. He said, miss,
we never heard nothing like this before. So he transferred
me to somebody else. And so bytt line, I got
to the victim Advocacy program and Ken and Penny from
the victim advocacy program said, they'll work with me to
set up arrangement for me to meet these two.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
The two men convicted of killing your son. Yes, well
you actually were able to do that. Yes, you met
with both of them individually.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I did, and what happened, Well, when I met with
mister Ike Johnson, first I asked my son or do
they mind being with me? And we wanted. I wanted
to go to the prison, but I know Tony said
no prison knocking Tanisha. They was open to do it,
but I didn't. I didn't really want to travel that far,
and traveling in that distance was not for me to do.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yeah, where are they were there? Incarcerated?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
They're incarcerated, I don't remember.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
That's kind of far.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
It was cold town or something like that. So they're
upstate pace.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
That was quite so I couldn't do it on the
same day, so I asked him, can we do zoom?
And we did soon.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah, so you brought Malcolm with you?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yes, Knacolm was there and Tanisha was there. Tony wasn't
there at first. He wasn't there at either time.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So Malcolm, what was that like?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
At first? It was very emotional because for me, that
was the first time that I actually got the opportunity
to lay eyes on them as an adult. The last
time that I actually was in the same room or
spoken to either one was in nineteen ninety when I
was nine years old in court, and I never got
the opportunity to conceptualize it or even comprehended as an adult.
(11:18):
And now and as an adult being able to see
and speak to both of them was just like a
full circle moment. He knew everything, you know, he says,
Malcolm is good to see.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You and and who is that speaking And this was like.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Johnson, this is the gentleman who actually was in the store,
who actually fired.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
The weapons, and in the midst that.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
He actually did this, and it was really like wow,
taken back, like you know me, he knew the story,
he knew I mean, of course he knew it, but
it was just you know, he followed us, He followed us,
you know, from what we were doing, and understood where
I was, you know, doing things politically and through the community.
And he knew Tunisia. He knew Tony, he called out
you know, Micah and Shannon like all of us, like
(12:00):
and Grant in his mind. And it was just so
like wow, and that really kind of threw me through
a loop. But also I've been on this information gathering
because I was only seven years old, so I only
know the accounts that was told between the lawyers, between
the court, between the media, and then with my own account.
(12:21):
But again, your account is only from what you're your perspective.
You don't know the background, you don't know the other
side of the story. You know. Finally, maybe in twenty eighteen, Tony,
myself and Micah and Shannon, we finally got together and
gave our accounts for the first time in thirty years.
So now hearing it from the other side of the gun,
(12:41):
hearing him and what he went through and his account
through the day, and he starts off and says that
you know, you and I was never supposed to meet.
I didn't come into that store for this. I was
just getting a pineapple soda on the hot July day.
And hearing that piece of it was just like, Okay,
I can release some of the anger or attention that
was in my heart because I thought they just was
(13:03):
coming in there just to.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Just shut up the store. Yeah, exactly, So, Tony, you
weren't able to be at the Zoom calls, but you're
certainly aware of everything that's going on, and I wonder
if you can tell us a little bit about your
own feeling. How do you relate to all of this
that's been unfolding.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
At first, when my mother brought it to my attention
and said that this is the path that she wants
to go down, at the first, I was just like,
I don't know. I don't think I really want to
be a part of it. I want to live my life,
you know. I don't want to keep bringing back and
open up the wounds again and again and again and again.
(13:42):
But it seems like every year the wounds keep open
again and again because every time we get to a milestone,
there's something that we have to do to remember that milestone,
there's a trigger.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
I'm saying, every year, right, right, right.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So then I thought about it and I was like,
you know, she's right. In order to move on, you
have to forgive. And in order to heal, you have
to forgive. So who am I to judge? Who am
I not to forgive?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Nobody?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
And then on top of that, God has already done
blessed me with my son, who is named Marcus.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yes, and he looks so much like him, it's really crazy.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Rich Yet, if.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Anyone has never believed in reincarnation, you need to look
at my brother. I mean, look at my son, because
my son is the reincarnation of my brother. God has
given me my brother to raise because the things that
he do, the things that he say, the birthmark, the
(14:46):
stork bite from one hit one side to the other,
the wings that he has on his back as a birthmark,
I mean, these are telltale signs of reincarnation and when
he was given to me in my life, you know,
and I'm able to raise this my brother again. You know,
(15:09):
I'm now looking at this whole thing like we need
to do this. We need to set a precedence for
anyone who's been dealing with the hurt and the pain
that can't get through it, who has the hate in
their heart because of someone that's did them wrong, but
they don't know the story behind of the person. And
then when I was able to hear the story to
(15:31):
get the idea of what happened, what led to this,
I'm looking at it like it could have been me.
It could be me now, especially the account that Michael
Gaynor has given, that could be any one of us
right now just walking and being in the crowd. And
then because I'm guilty by association, now I'm doing life.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So let's talk about Michael Gaynor, Shelley. The other thing
that came out of this is your understanding that Michael
Gaynor was actually wrongfully convicted of the murder of your son. Yes,
so he spent these thirty five years behind the walls
of the prison where he's incarcerated as an innocent man. Yes,
(16:15):
And so tell us more about that okay.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So when I reached out to him and I finally
got a chance to meet both of them. But I
just met with Michael Gaynor on Friday. I didn't know
any of this had happened because they put us out
the courtroom during that time. And so now I found
out that he was framed, that he was set up.
The police detective that was supposed to have been really
close to my family, Paul Warrell. They have a whole
story about him framing a whole lot of young black
(16:39):
boys during the eighties, and they are sitting in jail
right now. So I said to him, Michael, I said,
I have to do whatever I can to get you free.
You should not be sitting there for thirty six years
for something you didn't do. Nobody should be in the
prison walls the thirty six years for something they didn't do.
I said, how loo was your mother? She said eighty seven.
(17:01):
I said, I want to be there today that you
get out and give your mother a hug, because I
can't hug markets. But your mother's alive, and I pray
that you will get a chance to see her. And
so after he told me everything, he said, we're connected
as family. You're my family, and he thinks about everything.
In nineteen eighty eight, he talks to me like he said,
(17:21):
you're my big sister.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I said, okay, so I'm just like.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Wow and everything. Even with a Johnson, he talks to
me like it was that same day. He put me
right back in the place, and he gave me all
the answers that I ever waited to hear. And I
never heard any of those things until Friday. And so
I told him, if God give me that, give me strength,
and I get the people to help come behind me,
(17:47):
we're going to get you out of there. But I
told him I love him. I told him I'm sorry
because I didn't know. And if I knew back then,
I would have made sure that he would we would
have found the right person.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
And when we were talking about this previously, that Ike,
the person who admittedly pulled the trigger. When he saw
Michael Gainor, he said, that's not the guy, Yeah, he said,
but it's not him. That's not him. And yet they
went ahead and convicted him anyway. And that's not an
unfamiliar story.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
No, it's not. So many men are sitting behind bars
and I was looking at the exonerate the series as
on a radio series exam and then I trying to
contact the dae Yes, and I left message just for them.
I haven't heard back from them, but I guess the
urgency maybe it's not as there it is for me.
I don't want him to spend another day there.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
We're creating that urgency now, you know, now that we
got the story in the account and then talking to
Michael Gainor and hearing what he has done on his side,
this is what we need to do next because is wrong,
you know, and for him to sit and stealing in
prison for thirty five years is just unacceptable. So we
want to continue to do what we can do on
(18:56):
the outside and then what he's doing on the inside,
and using our platform and using our resources to say, Okay,
this was our brother and we lost them. Yes, this
has happened to our family, but it also is a
duality to it, like, Okay, now we have someone who
was wrongfully convicted, so we have to get him the
justice that he deserves. So he needs to be released.
So my mom has helped reaching out to Larry Krasner.
(19:18):
I also send some emails to the District Attorney office.
Also send an email to the Lieutenant Governor's office to
see what we can do to hopefully get the sense
of urgency and the priority place higher on this because
we definitely have to do something right.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
And just to close the circle, there was another person
who actually you believe is the shooter who has passed away.
Is it right? Yes, he was never arrested, no, but
he's passed away. And now we have two people, one
who's been isolated from the general population, Ike, because the death,
the murder of a child is the worst thing you
(19:54):
can do in prison. Right, absolutely, but ironically and very tellingly, right,
Michael Gaynor is in the general population. He's not considered
by his fellow inmates as being that person who was
the perpetrator of this murder. And so that's a very
interesting development, Tony. What would you like to see in
the best possible world.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
In the best possible world, I would love to see
Michael Gaynor be as hoonerated. I would like to see
Mike Johnson to be released. And the reason why I
say that is because, again, there's two sides of every story,
and when you hear his story, all he was doing
was protecting himself.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
That's all he was doing.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
He was protecting himself, you know. And and again I
sit and I think about it. It could have been anybody,
any one of us, anybody hearing him cross the street
almost getting hit by a car. This is like and
words was exchanged. Then he's in the store and the
person comes back into the store behind him and say
(20:56):
what did you say? And then pull a weapon And
then now he's defending himself and we were just casualties.
And for me that was a weight lifted because this
wasn't something between you know, him being reckless. It was
him defending himself. So the person who was driving the
car was the reckless one, like and that person got
what he deserved, still being in the streets, street justice,
(21:19):
street justice prevailed on him, right, But of course what
he was doing was wrong. He was in the streets
and he had a weapon on him all that. But
still thirty five years with self defense. Yes, that's another
thing that we look at like wow. Yeah, And honestly,
after you get down the road, like I said, this
is thirty six years now. Yes, you know, how long
(21:40):
are you gonna hold his crutch? How long are you
going to continue to have hate in your heart? You know,
just let it go.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why some of
us are physically and mentally sick is because of unforgiveness.
After speaking to them, it was not only was a
life changing for me, but it was emotional liberating. I
am no longer bound up them changed on my mind.
I'd been holding on those change was wrapped around my
mind for a long time because I didn't get a
(22:09):
chance to grief, as you really know, the newspeople followed
me everywhere I went. I worried about them boys because
they had to hit out on them. I had to
travel three hours to see them. I couldn't do half
the couldn't media half the time because her dad wasn't
ready to deal with it. My whole life changed. And
I'd just been, you know, psychologically so bonded. I was
(22:33):
in bondage. I'm not in bondage anymore. Five years ago
when i wrote him that letter, he read that letter
back to me, I tell you, and after he said,
you try to commit suicide, and I did because I
couldn't take this that Who wrote you a letter?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
She wrote a letter to Michael Gainer, actually to both
of them, I guess and Michael gainor kept that letter,
all the original articles and read the letter verbatim right
back to her.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Wo.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Man, you're talking about touching, it's just can't Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Wow. So I think we have to touch on the
fact that the media can traumatize and re traumatize over
and over, you know, first of all, bringing up the
details over and over again, being intrusive, you know, probably
following you and wanting to talk to you and all that.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Remember, Malcolm and I was to post a child for
stop the violence and increase the peace. We've been paraded
around Senate President Harrisburg. We've been to post the child,
so they all for this. But also what that being
said is that yes, the media could re traumatize us,
(23:48):
but we've been through it. We've been through the woods,
we've been through the fire. We can speak to truth
to justice, right or it is truth to power, but also
be able to have solution based conversation. Absolutely, And that's.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Where we're at now. For those who are still stuck
in the trauma and angry, we understand we want to
be the mouthpiece and we want to continuously be the
representative to those who can't necessarily tell their story. But
also now on the road of healing, recovery and redumbant.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Be there for someone who needs to be reared to
a different direction, because you know, not everyone has the
Lorraine balladmor And I told you every time I talk
to you, every time I have this conversation, regardless, I'm
gonna give you the flowers that you are rightfully given
because you took me from one place to change my life.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Absolutely so, and talking that we need that how media
portrays and tells the story as you and I know
we're going to this sensible gun violence, how to report
gun violence, and the way that you are you've been
telling the story, the way you've been connected to us.
We saw you saw us go from literally from the.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Not only are you grown men, but you're a successful
grown man. I mean you're a powerful man. You know,
you've got family, You've got love, You've you know, it's
my heart is so full just to see the two
of you, and you of course Shelley, and and Tunisia,
your daughter who was born nine months to the day
after Marcus.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
She has passed away doing the same thing. She's she
has own business as well, taken off.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, well it's it's a beautiful thing. And It's all
about healing and forgiveness and justice, and that's what you
want to see.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Want justice.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
You want justice as that's all we want is justice.
We all, that's all we've been crusading for.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
We want both of the men, release both of them,
not just one.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
There's certainly lots of folks out there who are they've
lost loved ones gun violence, because that's Philly. You know,
there's a lot of people who've lost lost their children
and may not see the path to heal. Absolutely, what
would you say to that?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I know we went and spoke quite a few different places.
It's Cheney State, everywhere. We just was at an event
a wee could go. And when I tell them that
I'm on this journey, I get those looks. My son
can tell you, they give me this gas for like,
are you crazy? Why would you forgive those people? And
I say, I'm thirty five years in and you're just
a year, a month, couple months, And I understand how
(26:23):
you feel, but I got to live my journey and
I'm there for you. I give them hugs and comfort
and prayer and whatever they need from me, I'll give
it to them. But I can't go back thirty five
years ago. I just got to move forward and I
got to do what God called me to do. They
have to be freed. It's not right. Justice is justice.
I'm concerned about my boys, my daughters. Every chance I
(26:47):
don't hear from Is that because of markets, yes, but
also because they're black men in America?
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And I feel the pain of these mothers who lost
their children, boys and girls and whoever. But I have
to work on the end of the avenue now. I
gotta move forward, and like you said, the other part
to this, and I'm working on that part now. Freedom.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Thank you all so much for joining us here today.
Shelley Yates Whittington, who is the mother of Marcus Yates,
who was killed over thirty five years ago at the
age of five in an incident that has cascaded into
a journey of healing and forgiveness for the whole family.
Shelley Yates a pastor, a teacher, and on her path
(27:33):
to forgiveness and healing. Tony Yates successful dj A dad.
I think I saw some prom pictures of yours daughter. Gorgeous, Oh, gorgeous. Yeah,
And I just love you, know. I follow you on
Facebook and I just love seeing what a great dad
and a great husband you are. Just a beautiful thing.
Tony Yates and Malcolm, I feel like you know Congress presienned.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
President President to God's Ears.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Definitely the path is open for you. You're currently director
of government relations for Public Health Management Corporation. You were
seven years old when your brother was killed, Tony was eleven,
and you're all on this joint journey of forgiveness and
healing and justice. And I want to thank you so
much for taking the time with us today to share
(28:21):
your story and hopefully provide inspiration and solace to others
who might be in a similar situation. And also hopefully
there will be justice for the two men that were
convicted in the murder of five year old Market Siates,
someone who certainly made a huge impact on my life
thirty five plus years ago. We want to say thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Absolutely, we'll think thank you, Lorraine, because you didn't have
to be here that you was there for us from
day one, from day one, and I think you.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Partners like you and the media partners that provide their
platform help us continuously do the job, help the people
that's necessary because we can't reach the ears without partners.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well, thank you all for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Can listen to all of today's interviews by going to
our station website and typing in Keyword Community. You can
also listen on the iHeartRadio app Keywords Philadelphia Community Podcast.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm
Lorraine Ballard MOREL and I stand for service to our
community and media that empowers. What will you stand for?
(29:22):
You've been listening to what's going on, and thank you
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