ORLANDO, Fla. — Brekencur Akins walked around the counter to show off the wall where the TV should have been.
She pointed to the hole that stretched from behind where she usually stood all the way to the other side,
The kitchen, she explained. The heart of her restaurant, Sister Soul Food.
The hole was a few inches higher than the top of her head.
“The bullet went through my bonnet to the TV,” Akins said. “All I could feel was when customers were under the table, all over the place. People running out the back door… We thought everything was over with.”
Since its opening two years ago, Sister Soul Food has become the heart of Parramore Avenue. Known for cheap, quality meals, the line begins forming well before the restaurant opens and lasts until the food runs out.
Though it’s almost always a packed house, Sundays are their busiest day of the week, and a few minutes before 1 p.m. is their busiest time.
Akins and her niece, Dejanay Whitehead, said the group of teenagers had been hanging out at the restaurant, waiting for food. Akins said her nephew was the first to notice the gun – and the shooting began seconds later.
After the hail stopped, the teenagers ran outside, Akins recalled. Then, the shooting started again.
“It’s about the lives that were at stake here,” Whitehead said, mentioning the crowd of older people who had just gotten out of church and who had to hide under tables. “Our customers’ lives were at stake.”
Orlando police investigators said the shooting stemmed from a dispute between two groups of teens. Four of them were hurt, including one who witnesses said was shot in the neck.
One of the teens, who had a bullet go through his leg, didn’t realize he had been shot until he got home, people who knew him said.
Next door, Pastor Lydia Collier of Desire for All Nations Church said she sheltered about 20 kids inside her office. She said she had just finished working with a youth group and delivered a sermon about being thankful they had been protected from violence.
She is now planning her next Sunday session – one that will be less sermon and more about helping the kids deal with trauma.
“I just want them to know we’re praying for them,” Collier said, of the youth group and the teenagers who were hurt.
Whitehead said Sister Soul Food will remain closed until they can get a new front window, out of concern for their customers’ safety near the broken glass.
The family said they’re taking it one day at a time to help each other and their customers through the emotions that follow trauma.
“We started this for this community because we knew there were a lot of low-income families in this community,” Akins explained. “We moved over here to help the community and lift up and build relationships.”
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