ST. LOUIS — St. Louis police announced an arrest Wednesday in the murder of 7-year-old Xavier Usanga.
When they told people gathered for a vigil outside Xavier’s house in the Hyde Park neighborhood, the crowd cheered.
Family, neighbors, clergy and community leaders came together to pray and plead for an end to the violence in what feels like a desperate moment.
"We have to stop this!" St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner shouted to the crowd.
She had tears in her eyes.
"It's about hope. Let's give these kids hope. Let's give our communities hope. And until we give people who are hopeless the desire to live, what do they think they're gonna do to your family?"
Xavier's family wants to be a part of the solution.
"I'm worried about these babies that's out here. I'm worried about them. I can't do nothing for Xavier now, but I can do something for these babies,” his grandmother, Mary Norwood, said.
She wants to turn the lot next to his house into a park, so something positive can come from something so devastating.
"It is time for us to fight back and it has been time for us to fight back,” Alderman Brandon Bosley said.
Xavier’s murder is now a mandate to make St. Louis safer.
Police have not named the person arrested in his case or said if they’re looking for more people.