Candlelight Vigil

Family members of Ahjee Harrod, the 16-year-old girl who was fatally shot in the head in Northwest Baltimore on Sunday night, plan to hold a candlelight vigil Friday night - in part to dispute claims they were estranged from her. Harrod was loved by many - more than 13,000 people have liked the "RIP Ahjee Harrod" page on Facebook - and close to her family, and the vigil will allow everyone to come together to mourn, the family said. The family is frustrated with the way police have handled the case and portrayed Harrod as a troubled girl who'd had multiple run-ins with law enforcement, they said.

The family of Aaliyah Boyer plans to hold a candlelight vigil Saturday night, in honor of the 10-year-old girl who was killed by apparent celebratory gunfire as Cecil County rang in 2013 early Tuesday. Boyer was pronounced dead on Thursday at a Delaware hospital after two days on life support. She had been in the front yard at her grandfather's Elkton home just after the stroke of midnight Jan. 1 when she collapsed, struck by a falling bullet. Experts say people are injured far too often by celebratory gunfire .  Aaliyah's aunt, Ashleigh Rice, said the vigil will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday at 65 AJS Court in Elkton.

Perhaps it's the brief darkness that nudges people closer, forging among them a unity of purpose as their individual, flickering flames gradually multiply to illuminate the night with one bright glow. Whatever the psychology of a candlelight vigil, its power as an emotionally unifying force is undeniable, making it the perfect choice for a new annual gathering to remember victims who have been assaulted or killed by loved ones, said Krista McKee, who recently took the helm of the Domestic Violence Center of Howard County.

President Barack Obama, the Rev. M. Cristina Paglinauan and columnist Dan Rodricks all have expressed sorrow and outrage over the slaughter of innocent children in Newtown, Conn. ("Stand vigil for gun victims and new laws," Dec. 23). Yet their vocal concern is in stark contrast to their silence over all the children who have been murdered in Mr. Obama's drone attacks. What applies to children murdered by a mentally ill gunman should also apply to those murdered by drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Maryland's first Angel of Hope statue stands in a garden across from the South Carroll Senior and Community Center, on Mineral Hill Road, in Eldersburg. The statue, depicting an angel with her arms raised and standing about 4 feet tall, is surrounded by two benches and a memorial wall. When it was placed and dedicated earlier this year, it was the hope of the Eldersburg-based JOSH (Joining Others Seeking Healing) Foundation that people would find comfort in the meditation garden while remembering their loved ones, especially children.

They stood quietly behind the Longfellow Elementary sign as though posed for a class picture, a small candelabra of people flickering against the dark. A family trailed toward them: two children, one holding a small picket sign that read, "Remember the Kids," and their parents, one holding a large American flag. In the warm night, dogs sat patiently by their owners. Once or twice, a car honked. It was Missy Zane's second Sunday candlelight vigil against the war, but now bombs were falling on Iraq.

Students at the University of Virginia are planning to hold a candlelight vigil tonight in memory of slain lacrosse player Yeardley Love, the first campus-wide event organized in honor of the 22-year-old Cockeysville native. Friends and acquaintances of Love have held private tributes since she was found dead in her off-campus apartment Monday morning, including a small candle ceremony on campus yesterday. But tonight's vigil, a public event at 8 p.m. in the university's McIntire Amphitheater, will be one of the few organized activities on a campus otherwise engrossed in preparations for exams.

Animal Advocates of Howard County will sponsor a candlelight vigil for homeless animals at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 20 at the Animal Control Facility, 8576 Davis Road, Village of Long Reach.The event is part of a national observance commemorating the dogs, cats and other animals killed in shelters and animal control facilities in the past year because of animal overpopulation.The purpose of the event is to make the public aware that the mass killing can be prevented by spaying and neutering pets, and educating the public.

With a candlelight vigil tonight and a countywide conference tomorrow, Howard County health officials and members of the interfaith community will join HIV carriers and their families to commemorate World AIDS Day, which is tomorrow.The events will focus on the rights and treatment of those who are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), also called the AIDS virus."This is not just a health issue," said the Rev. Douglas Hunt, pastor of Columbia United Christian Church, which is the host for tonight's vigil at the Oakland Mills Meeting House at 5885 Robert Oliver Place.

UNDER A starlit sky, hundreds of people gathered to participate in a candlelight vigil near the People Tree at Columbia's Lakefront on Sunday night. The event, called "Columbia Remembers," was planned by the Columbia Association to honor the victims and rescue workers at the Pentagon and in New York who lost or risked their lives Sept. 11 and in the aftermath of the tragedy. The ceremony began with representatives from the Howard County Police and Fire Department's Color Guard marching toward the People Tree, led by Ellicott City residents Don Zack and his daughter, Tatia, playing bagpipes and drum.

The National Rifle Association's response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School - that is, placing blame for it on everyone and everything except the NRA and its all-guns-all-the-time credo - was utterly predictable. But this time it won't matter. With that speech on Friday, the NRA's outspoken vice president, Wayne LaPierre, officially declared the organization's new status: irrelevant. There isn't much an organization like this, hunkered down in the failed policies of the past, can do to stop what's coming - a sustained, populist, bipartisan demand that Congress start taking action to stop mass killings.

Maryland's first Angel of Hope statue stands in a garden across from the South Carroll Senior and Community Center, on Mineral Hill Road, in Eldersburg. The statue, depicting an angel with her arms raised and standing about 4 feet tall, is surrounded by two benches and a memorial wall. When it was placed and dedicated earlier this year, it was the hope of the Eldersburg-based JOSH (Joining Others Seeking Healing) Foundation that people would find comfort in the meditation garden while remembering their loved ones, especially children.

Family members of Ahjee Harrod, the 16-year-old girl who was fatally shot in the head in Northwest Baltimore on Sunday night, plan to hold a candlelight vigil Friday night - in part to dispute claims they were estranged from her. Harrod was loved by many - more than 13,000 people have liked the "RIP Ahjee Harrod" page on Facebook - and close to her family, and the vigil will allow everyone to come together to mourn, the family said. The family is frustrated with the way police have handled the case and portrayed Harrod as a troubled girl who'd had multiple run-ins with law enforcement, they said.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high temperature near 75 degrees. It is expected to be mostly clear tonight, with a low temperature around 47 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic map for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FULL ELECTION RESULTS Click here to see the results from Tuesday's primary election. FROM LAST NIGHT... Dyer's seat in jeopardy in Howard school board primary : Howard County school board member Allen Dyer, who has battled the panel's attempts to oust him, was in danger of elimination in Tuesday's school board primary, as 14 candidates battled for six spots on November's ballot.

Johns Hopkins University student Nathan Krasnopoler was riding his bike home from the Waverly Farmer's Market on a sunny Saturday morning last February when his life was cut short by an elderly driver. The 20-year-old computer science major from Ellicott City was riding in a marked bike lane on University Parkway when an 83-year-old woman turned right and hit him, trapping him under her car for 15 to 20 minutes. He never regained consciousness, was in a coma for more than five months and died Aug. 10 of brain injuries sustained in the accident.

The woman whose body was found Sunday evening along the Gwynns Falls Trail in Southwest Baltimore was identified Wednesday as a 40-year-old from Linthicum, according to city police, who say she had been shot. Lois Smyth, also known as Lois Vance, lived in the 400 block of W. Maple Road. She had attended Old Mill High School in Severna Park, and her classmates there have tentatively scheduled a candlelight vigil at the school for Thursday night. Baltimore police said they have interviewed people of interest in the case and have established a motive, but would not disclose details because of the pending investigation.

Johns Hopkins University student Nathan Krasnopoler was riding his bike home from the Waverly Farmer's Market on a sunny Saturday morning last February when his life was cut short by an elderly driver. The 20-year-old computer science major from Ellicott City was riding in a marked bike lane on University Parkway when an 83-year-old woman turned right and hit him, trapping him under her car for 15 to 20 minutes. He never regained consciousness, was in a coma for more than five months and died Aug. 10 of brain injuries sustained in the accident.

The Harford County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving will hold its first Candlelight Vigil of Remembrance and Hope at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Bel Air in recognition of those killed or injured by drunken drivers.The vigil, in front of the Harford County Courthouse on Main Street, will be held simultaneously with the National Candlelight Vigil in Chicago and others around the country by local MADD chapters.Harford County is the only one of Maryland's eight chapters holding a ceremony during National Drunk Driving Awareness Month.

There was Jana, and then Chrissie and others. And then there was Tyra. The names were among those on a long list of local transgender people who succumbed to violence or drug abuse or homelessness, said Robyn Webb, who rattled them off at a candlelight vigil Friday for the latest victim, Tyra Trent. While Webb, 54, never knew Trent, she understood her struggles and knew of her death. The 25-year-old, born Anthony Trent and known as Tyra, was killed last month. Her body was found Feb. 19 in a vacant, city-owned home in the 3300 block of Virginia Ave. in Northwest Baltimore.

— Like others at the candlelight vigil this week, Patty O'Brien had been outraged by what she called the "stupid and thoughtless" remarks of two county officials who voted to cut off funding to the Head Start preschool program, declaring it was better if women stayed home with their kids. But now, O'Brien, a working mother, was shocked at something much closer to home. Her 9-year-old daughter, who accompanied her to the Thursday night vigil, had a declaration of her own. "I wish she didn't work," Loretta Donaghue said, "so I didn't have to go to day care.