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Friends gather to remember Fort Myers shooting victim

The News-Press
Kimberly Thomas, right, holds the mic for Nicole McMiller, as she gets emotional while speaking at the vigil for Stef'An Strawder at St. Mary's Missionary's Baptist Church on July 25, 2016, in Fort Myers, Florida. Stef'An was killed in a shooting at Club Blu the night before.

It was just one day ago, a Sunday morning, when Stef'An Strawder walked through the doors of the St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church here in the Harlem Lake neighborhood.

Strawder wore a red polo shirt, blue Levi's and white tennis shoes. He carried a bible in his hand and sat in a middle pew of the building that's been a neighborhood sanctuary for more than 50 years. 

But too often, church members say,  St. Mary's has been a place where families gather to mourn the death of someone young. 

Strawder was one of two teenagers killed in the shooting early Monday outside Club Blu on Evans that left as many as 20 injured.

Details were scarce on how it all happened, or why. The club was hosting what it described as a swimsuit party for teens. 

Ebony Brown, one of a few dozen of Strawder's friends and relatives who congregated at the church Monday evening to remember Strawder, looked to Sunday's service, when the church read from the Book of John about the relationship between parents and their children.

"Our kids are growing up too fast," she said. 

"We just had another one of these here a couple of months ago," said the church's deacon, Nelson Lewis.

Lewis hesitated. He realized he couldn't remember the victim's name. 

Strawder isn't described as a trouble maker. His passion was basketball. He was a rising senior guard at Lehigh High School and was a finalist last season for the News-Press Boys Basketball Player of the Year. 

"He had a very bright future," said Kimberly Thomas, Strawder's cousin. "You haven't heard anything bad about him from anybody."

"He was just robbed of his life."

Later, Thomas stood before the congregation with a microphone in her right hand. 

"We are here, living and breathing tonight, because someone else is not," she said.

Her voice broke. She paused. She wiped her eyes with her left hand. 

Strawder's family have been attending the two-hour services at St. Mary's their whole lives. Strawder was baptised here. His immediate family didn't come to Monday's hourlong service. They were too emotional, relatives said. 

Lewis opened and closed the service with a prayer. 

"We're losing our youth," he said, as the congregation stood in a circle and held hands. The building's old stucco walls softened a dim light shining through stain-glassed windows.

"We need you Lord to come down right now and save us."

On a recent Sunday, after service let out around 1 p.m., about a dozen friends and family went to Strawder's house, where Strawder's mom, Stephanie White, cooked a dinner of turkey wings and yellow rice and collared greens. 

The family sat around the dining table, telling stories, laughing. Stef'An was there, off in the corner, talking to his mom and his cousins. 

But by the end of the evening, Stef'An had gone. Nobody quite remembers what he said before he left, but they think it was something about playing basketball. 

Gun violence in our community: How much can we take?

Lehigh basketball star Stef'An Strawder killed in Club Blu shooting

Family and friends sing a hymn during a vigil for Stef'An Strawder at St. Mary's Missionary's Baptist Church on July 25, 2016, in Fort Myers, Florida. Stef'An was killed in a shooting at Club Blu the night before.