The Chapel Hill NAACP is holding a prayer service in honor of Maleah Williams, the 1-year-old who was shot on Christmas Day, and died of her injuries.
The group says it is hosting an Emancipation Day Prayer Service at 1 p.m. today in the St. Joseph's CME Church in Chapel Hill.
"In the hour of our deepest need, our children die so needlessly. There is a prophetic mourning that demands that we be neither comfortable nor cynical in the face of violent death," said North Carolina NAACP president Rev. William Barber in a news release.
"They are our children, whether it is a baby shot amid a senseless crime in Chapel Hill or a child shot in two seconds by a trigger happy cop in Cleveland," Barber said, referring to the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. Earlier this week, a grand jury declined to indict the two officers involved in that shooting.
Three men have been arrested and charged in connection with the shooting of Maleah Williams.
U.S. Marshals arrested 22-year-old Shaquille Oneill Davis last Sunday. Police have also charged 22-year-old Ramone Alston and 23-year-old Pierre Je Bron Moore.
Maleah died December 28. Her funeral is scheduled for Saturday at the Chapel Hill Bible Church.
Soon after the shooting, family friends launched a Go Fund Me campaign to assist with medical and funeral expenses.