Family, friends, and community members gathered for a vigil at Lightning Quick Fit in Mount Vernon to honor and remember local boxer and gym owner Ernest Hall.
“Ernie was a beautiful man, he was the type of person when you met him, it doesn’t matter what capacity, you could have met him on the streets, at the store, or the mall somewhere. He shined his light right on you, and you knew it immediately. That’s the impact some people have on this earth.” Hall’s oldest child said.
Police confirmed that 33-year-old Ernest Hall was killed in Thursday morning's mass shooting in the 2800 block of Edmondson Ave.
To shoot into a crowd of people, and a 15-year-old child gets shot? Thats cowardly. How do you sleep at night? We don’t want you in the city if you going to stay on the gangster stuff, we don’t want you in the city if you are going to stay in the drug game and the criminal gangs that they have in this city. We don’t want you here. If you don’t want to give it up and you’re a career criminal, ok, go do that somewhere else. From this point on, everyone in the city should be outraged,” Hall’s oldest child added.
Kristen Catchings, coach and friend of Hall, gave a description for anyone who did not know him.
“He was incredibly humble and incredibly friendly. He was a visionary, he thought a lot about the future, he was always learning he was always trying to be better, and always trying to do better for other people. And he was always expecting better of himself.” Catchings said.
Ernest Hall's funeral will be on April 7th at noon.