Remembrance Service Marks 1 Year Since Tulsa Good Friday Shootings

It's been a year since Good Friday became the worst day of several Tulsans' lives.

Three black victims died and two more were injured when investigators say two white men randomly shot at them in North Tulsa.

Read complete coverage of the 2012 Good Friday Shootings

A Saturday afternoon remembrance service marked the year since their deaths.

Hoping for healing, Tulsans called the service "And Still We Rise."

Faith and the outpouring of love was the only thing that helped many of the victims' families get through the pain.

"This is a time for healing, and I think this is a time for the community to say to these people, ‘We haven't forgotten you,'" Tulsa city councilor Jack Henderson said.

Bobby Clark, 54; Dannaer Fields, 49; and Bill Allen, 31, all died April 6 from single gunshot wounds to the chest.

Deon Tucker, 44, and David Hall, 46, were also shot, but both survived.

Tucker and Hall attended the service.

"Some aren't willing to talk, some have shut up some things inside, but they're doing really well as families," said Warren Blakney, minister of the North Peoria Church of Christ. "The ones who were shot are healing and doing fairly well."

Prosecutors said Jacob England and Alvin Watts drove around north Tulsa looking for black people to kill on Good Friday, and it ended in tragedy.

"This was an event that affected the entirety of our city, that we, as one Tulsa, as one community, rose up and said, ‘This is unacceptable.' And we're still that way," Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said.

A task force tracked down England and Watts within 24 hours.

As the minister pointed out, that task force was made up of people from many races.

"I think there is hope for our city, we are growing in the direction of becoming one city and we can be that jewel that everyone talks about," Tulsan Kavin Ross said.

Leaders believe the city still has some race-related problems to solve.

"Tulsa is not going to clean those up overnight; we didn't get that way over night," Henderson said. "The city has had one of the worst race riots in history, but we're moving in the right direction."

England and Watts are in the Tulsa County Jail without bond awaiting trial for murder and hate crimes.

The district attorney's office says it will pursue the death penalty.